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Spain phenom Lamine Yamal outdoes Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo with historic World Cup goal originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Wunderkind is a German word that has been adopted into the English language. Translated, it means "wonder child."
In the world of international football, it means Lamine Yamal.
The 18-year old phenom for Spain is certainly the best young player in the world, and he's quickly rising toward the title of the best player in the world, period.
In his club career, he shines for powerhouse Barcelona.
And after debuting on a world stage a couple years ago for Spain at the European Championships at 16, he's finally at his first World Cup.
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Lamine Yamal is still just 18 years old, and on Sunday, he scored the first goal of his World Cup career.
It wasn't one of his classic left-footed strikes -- instead, it was a cut to the back post to slide and tap in an easy one after a strong Spanish move.
More notably than Spain's blowout win over Saudi Arabia may have been how this compared in historic terms for Lamine Yamal.
This goal came earlier in his life than the first World Cup goals for either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo:
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Pele was 17 years and 239 days old when he scored his first World Cup goal, but in some ways, that's about the calendar.
If there had been a World Cup two years ago, there's a strong chance Lamine Yamal would've scored as a 16 year old. The same could be potentially said for any of these all-time greats.
So yes, the four-year cycle of the World Cup has a lot to do with setting marks like this, or not.
But what the cycle has nothing to do with is how special Lamine Yamal is, and the fact that his ceiling is almost limitless.
On this day, though, future isn't the right word, because the future has already arrived.
Lamine Yamal, the wonder child, is on the board at the World Cup. Every time he touched the ball on Sunday, the crowd buzzed, nothing something remarkable might happen.
And he's just getting started.
More FIFA World Cup news:
- USA, England can't actually play on July 4th
- Why Norway brought 600 pounds of salmon to the World Cup
- Cape Verde pulls off one of craziest results in World Cup history
- Pink cleats are everywhere at the World Cup
- How Folarin Balogun's mom being too pregnant to fly led him to USMNT
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