Vicente del Bosque delivers ultimate compliment to Barcelona star: ‘Would have started in my Spain team’

Vicente del Bosque delivers ultimate compliment to Barcelona star: ‘Would have started in my Spain team’ Barcelona star Lamine Yamal is the biggest talent in world football. At just 19, he has already become one of the best players in the world . He has received countless compliments since emerging as one of football’s brightest talents. Now, he has received the ultimate one from Vicente Del Bosque. The legendary Spanish manager believes the Barcelona superstar would have had a starting place in his iconic 2008-12 La Roja side. Del Bosque backs Lamine for his legendary Spain team Del Bosque was full of praise for Lamine and felt the youngster would have started for his Spain teams. “He probably would have been a starter,” Del Bosque declared (h/t Barca Universal ). The former Real Madrid manager also revealed that his admiration for the Barcelona youngster began when Lamine was just 11. “I first met him when he was just 11 years old at a tournament organised by Jose Ramon de la Morena, and he already looked promising. He is a very good player,” he recalled. To identify a player’s ceiling at just 11 and earmark him for the future is exactly what elite managers can do while others cannot. Lamine Yamal is already one of the best players in the world. (Photo by Pedro Salado/Getty Images) Del Bosque’s assessment is remarkable because of the extraordinary players who made up his Spain squad. His squad included Barcelona legends like Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique, along with other legends like Iker Casillas, Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos. Making such a bold claim about finding a place for Lamine among those legends is what makes this compliment as big as it gets. A remarkable endorsement of Barcelona’s latest superstar Lamine Yamal broke through into the Barcelona first team at just 16 and won the Euros at the end of the same season. By 18, he was already one of the most followed players heading into the World Cup in North America, and he has continued to improve since. The winger’s creativity, dribbling ability, chance creation and goalscoring have made him one of the first names on the team sheet for Spain and Barça . How would have Lamine Yamal fit in among legends like Xavi, Busquets and Iniesta?. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images) If there is one thing Del Bosque’s legendary teams lacked at times, it was the unpredictability that Lamine brings to the game. The Spain squad of that era was made up of technically gifted midfielders who could pass any opposition out of the game, but someone like Lamine could have made them even more potent. Obviously, there is no way to know whether Del Bosque’s theory would have worked out, but it underlines the Barcelona star’s remarkable growth. Barcelona will hope that their No. 10 can continue performing at a similar level, keep getting better and play a leading role in bringing the elusive Champions League back to the Camp Nou .