{"id":403085,"date":"2026-04-21T08:29:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/403085\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T08:29:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:29:18","slug":"lamine-yamal-admits-aim-to-follow-in-footsteps-of-lionel-messi-after-barcelona-wonderkid-named-laureus-world-young-sportsperson-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/403085\/","title":{"rendered":"Lamine Yamal admits aim to &#8216;follow in footsteps&#8217; of Lionel Messi after Barcelona wonderkid named Laureus World Young Sportsperson of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Upon collecting the trophy, Yamal expressed immense pride in becoming the inaugural recipient of the Young Sportsperson category, especially given the standard set by Messi. The Argentine remains the only footballer in history to claim the main World Sportsman of the Year title, a feat he first achieved in 2020 before claiming it again in 2023. <\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on the legacy of the man he hopes to emulate at the Nou Camp, Yamal said: &#8220;I am very happy to be the first to receive this award for best young athlete. It is a source of pride. When you realise an athlete isn\u2019t just a legend of their sport but of all sports &#8211; Messi, who for me is the best player in history, and if he isn\u2019t the greatest athlete ever, he\u2019s definitely in that conversation with all of them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He\u2019s more than an idol. I think everyone respects him for everything he\u2019s done. He\u2019s been part of the childhood of every kid when we played in the park or at school, and I hope I\u2019ll be able to follow in his footsteps.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Upon collecting the trophy, Yamal expressed immense pride in becoming the inaugural recipient of the Young Sportsperson category,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1998,85,15022,46,15023,78591,18617,15025,105],"class_list":["post-403085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-barcelona","tag-il","tag-inter-miami-cf","tag-israel","tag-l-messi","tag-l-yamal","tag-laliga","tag-major-league-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}