Like Messi! Lamine Yamal's New Jersey Number at Barcelona
Lamine Yamal will wear the number that Messi once wore in his early days with Barcelona.
Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal will wear the number 19 jersey next season, the same number Leo Messi wore when he first joined the senior team (1995-96 season). Yamal wore this number during the last Euro Cup, where he was named the competition's Young MVP and played a key role in Spain's title win.
The Catalan attacker, who just turned 17, will have a first-team spot next season, leaving behind the number 27 he wore last season, with which he scored seven goals in fifty matches under Xavi Hernández's guidance.
Since the introduction of fixed numbers in the 1995-1996 season, the number 19 at Barcelona has been worn by various players, including Lluís Carreras, Juan Antonio Pizzi, Patrick Kluivert, Dani Garcia Lara, and Fernando Navarro.
Messi chose the number 19 when he moved up to the senior team, wearing it from 2005 to 2008, before passing it on to Maxwell, Martín Montoya, Ibrahim Afellay, Sandro Ramírez, Lucas Digne, Munir El Haddadi, Kevin-Prince Boateng, and Carles Aleñá.
More recently, the number 19 has been worn by Martin Braithwaite, Matheus Fernandes, Sergio 'Kun' Agüero, Ferran Torres, Franck Kessie, and Vitor Roque, who wore it in the second half of last season.
