Lamine Yamal missed out on the 2025 Ballon d'Or but he remains vital for Barcelona and Spain.
The 18-year-old has already smashed a host of records in his career after making his first-team breakthrough at 16.
The Catalan-born teenager is the youngest player to score in La Liga, the youngest to start a UEFA Champions League game, plus the youngest player to feature and score at a European Championship.
His superb form from 2024/25 campaign has carried over into the current campaign but there have been concerns raised over some his off-field activities.
A controversial 18th birthday party in July saw criticism fired at him amid the evergreen pressure of being a global prodigy at such a young age.
Tennis icon Boris Becker knows the scenario facing a rising star - after becoming Wimbledon's youngest ever Men's Singles champion at 17 in 1985 - and he offered some advice.
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Becker defended his title in 1986, but he's admitted to battling against addiction to alcohol and sleeping tablets during his early career, and warned Lamine Yamal to choose his inner circle carefully.
"Lamine is wonderful, he's winning everything. He's the best young player in the world right now. He reminds me of myself when I was 17. But, with him, my alarm bells ring," Becker told an interview with talkSPORT.
"I think he has a very high risk of facing certain difficulties in 10 or 15 years time .He comes from very humble origins, and now he and his entire family are rich, lots of people are going to approach him out of their own interest. He’s lost all his privacy.
"He needs to have two or three serious people around him. To choose his friends wisely, trust his family and build a safety net."
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