Joan Laporta and Deco met with agent Jorge Mendes in Lisbon to discuss the future of Lamine Yamal, who has yet to sign his contract renewal with the Barcelona team. “The meeting went very well. Lamine Yamal is going to renew with Barcelona, you already know that,” Jorge Mendes said on the run through the streets of Lisbon in images published by the program ‘El Chiringuito’. The only problem in the player’s renewal was the financial issue for Barça, to which the economic demands of the youth academy player would now be added.
Lamine Yamal’s current contract expires in 2026, and although there is a ‘verbal agreement’ to extend it until 2030 when he turns 18, the lack of financial guarantees would have been the cause of the slowdown in the player’s renewal. If Barça does not manage to renew his contract before December 31st of this year, Lamine could negotiate with other clubs from January 1st, 2026 and leave for free on June 30th of that same year.
The negotiation of the contract extension is being handled with enormous secrecy on all sides. Lamine is no longer just worth his salary. He also makes the Barça brand richer. That is what his agent, Jorge Mendes, who works with Deco, with whom he has a good relationship, understands, in harmonizing as far as possible his aims with those of the club.
Barça are aware that they have to stretch themselves and make an effort with Lamine, but they do not want to create a dependency like the one that accompanied Messi for many years.
Lamine over Vinicius or Mbappé
Lamine Yamal is the second-ranked player in terms of offensive performance index, according to the CIES Football Observatory. The organization presented a list of the 100 players with the best offensive performance in the world, according to their statistics in three areas of the game: receiving, creation and finishing. The ranking is headed by Frenchman Michael Olise with an average index of 88.5 in these three areas and a maximum value of 99 in chance creation. The Bayern Munich player beats Barcelona’s Spanish player Lamine Yamal (87.7) and Bayer Leverkusen’s German player Florian Wirtz (85.0), who complete the podium.
The Barça youth player is ahead of big names such as Vinicius Jr. of Real Madrid (84.2%), Ousmane Dembélé of Paris Saint-Germain (83.6%),