Lamine Yamal wins La Liga Player of the Year award: How many times did Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo claim it?

Just as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo dominated La Liga for years, this new era appears destined to belong to Lamine Yamal. The young Barcelona winger was named the league’s best player of the season after a standout campaign.

“A wonderkid! Barcelona star, Lamine Yamal wins La Liga Player of the Season,” the Spanish league announced Friday on its official social media accounts alongside a photo of the 18-year-old holding the trophy.

The same post highlighted four other players as Yamal’s main challengers. Kylian Mbappe finished second after an impressive season with Real Madrid despite the club’s lack of silverware and his injury struggles. Also featured among the contenders were Villarreal’s Nicolas Pepe, Mallorca’s Vedat Muriqi, and Real Betis’ Pablo Fornals.

Lamine Yamal played a decisive role in Barcelona’s title-winning campaign, recording 16 goals and 12 assists in 28 matches — an average of one goal contribution per game. Despite dealing with a groin issue early in the season and a hamstring injury that sidelined him during the final stretch of the campaign, the winger established himself as the team’s primary attacking threat. He even carried much of the offensive burden during the absences of Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha, the other star attackers in the squad.

Yamal follows in Messi’s footsteps

In previous years, Lamine Yamal had already shown flashes of brilliance with Barcelona, earning the La Liga U-23 Player of the Season award in both 2024 and 2025. This year, however, he took another step forward and claimed the league’s top individual honor, which had been awarded to Raphinha the previous season.

In doing so, Yamal surpassed Lionel Messi as the youngest player ever to win the award. The Argentine forward first claimed the honor at age 21 after starring during the 2008-09 season.

However, when comparing the two, Lamine still has a long way to go. Messi holds the record for the most La Liga Player of the Year awards with nine, including a streak of five consecutive wins. After his first recognition in 2009, he also won the award in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Cristiano Ronaldo trails far behind

Despite enjoying a brilliant nine-year spell with Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo struggled to establish himself as La Liga’s dominant individual star and spent much of that era competing with Lionel Messi’s overwhelming influence. As a result, CR7 won the league’s Player of the Year award only once during his nine seasons in Spain, claiming the honor in 2014.