Football is in a new era and as Marco van Basten will tell you the transition has already been made. The Dutch mythology has put 18-year-old Lamine Yamal as the most popular player in the world, beating the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and contemporary superstar Kylian Mbappé.
Van Basten gave the statement on the Rondo of Ziggo Sport and provided one of the most powerful possible approvals. He said that Lamane Yamal, without any doubt, is the best player in the world today, not in the past, or in prospect.
This statement has weight as it is made by someone who had made their career to be an epitome of excellence at the very top. The observation-based assessment, proposed by Van Basten, is how the players influence matches, control the pace and create decisive moments in the stressful situation. According to those criteria, he feels that Yamal is already on his own.
Ronaldo and Messi transformed the world of football in a generation and they have changed the concept of longevity and consistency in the top level. Mbappé has been considered as the heir apparent, he has a youth, speed, and final good on the largest stage. However, the opinion of van Basten indicates that the status quo has been altered.
The 2025 was a turning point of Yamal. No longer treated as a prospect and being called a promising talent, he was the centre of the attacking character of his group. The second place in the Ballon d’Or race sprinkled his appearance in the world of the elite in football, which is not easy to achieve at his age.
Yamal has been ruling in the goal-beyond-goal and assist-beyond-assist fields statistically. His dribbling performance, opportunity creation, and performance as an overall attacker have made him the head in the elite performance parameters. On the field, his commercial influence has also been quite impressive, as the number of jersey sales in the world has soared to new heights.
The opinion of Van Basten serves as a kind of generalization: the future of football is in the hands of those who create the games nowadays. In his opinion, Lamine Yamal already did just that.
