Raphinha vs Lamine Yamal
Team-mates at Barcelona who have never met as opponents in a competitive game: the teenager who took over the right wing, and the captain, ten and a half years older, who was moved across to make room.
By the Oddsivio teamLast reviewed Stats updated
Last season · club and country together · official matches
Who does what?
Raphinha scored more goals last season; Lamine Yamal, meanwhile, had more assists. They were level on pass completion, with chances created too close to call.
Worth knowing: Lamine Yamal had 4,468 minutes to Raphinha's 2,431 last season; the bigger sample is the steadier one.
What separates them
2 of 4 pass both our tests: a big enough gap, and sure enough to hold.
- Raphinha
- Yamal
- Typical forwards
- Goals per 90Raphinha led0.7821 goals0.5025 goals
About 50% more goals: about 8 more over 30 full matches.
Held up next season: about 7 in 10
- Chances created per 90Too close to call2.978 chances2.6131 chances
Not sure enough to name a leader.
- Assists per 90Yamal led0.267 assists0.4020 assists
About 4 more assists over 30 full matches for Yamal than Raphinha.
Held up next season: about 7 in 10
- Pass completion share of passes completedLevel80%50%100%81%
Too small a gap against typical forwards to name a leader. Pass completion depends a lot on role and team.
Per 90 = per 90 minutes played, so different minutes compare fairly.
Does it hold up?
Without penalties
Raphinha still led (0.59 vs 0.38 per 90; 16 goals to 19).
How they play · volume, not a lead
Lamine Yamal tried far more take-ons (9.3 vs 3.0 per 90) and won far more duels (9.0 vs 3.7 per 90) last season.
Why this comparison
Barcelona signed Raphinha in 2022 as a right winger, and a year later a 16-year-old from their academy was starting there. In 2023–24, under Xavi, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal both played in 35 games but started only ten together, and nine times one replaced the other. Raphinha called the competition a privilege and an honour in February 2024; by that summer, he told The Guardian in 2026, he had decided to leave, until Hansi Flick, the new coach, asked to meet him and said he trusted him. Flick made the left his position: in Flick's first two seasons, 58 of their 67 starts together had Raphinha on the left and Yamal on the right.
Their best season together, 2024–25, brought LaLiga, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup; Raphinha scored 34 goals for the club, and by the club's count his 13 goals and eight assists in the Champions League equalled Cristiano Ronaldo's 2013–14 record for goals plus assists in one season. LaLiga named him its player of the season. In the Ballon d'Or, won by Ousmane Dembélé, he came fifth, three places below Yamal, and later said not winning it had been a personal disappointment. A year on, left off the 30-man list, he said Yamal had to win the 2026 award no matter what.
Every number · last season
 RaphinhaRaphinha | Stat | YamalLamine Yamal |
|---|---|---|
2,431 | Minutes | 4,468 |
37 | Matches | 55 |
72.29Important · 40 club games · as of 2026-10-12 | Current squad importance | 84.48Star · 40 club games · as of 2026-10-12 |
0.7821 in total | goals per 90 | 0.5025 in total |
0.267 in total | assists per 90 | 0.4020 in total |
2.978 in total | chances created per 90 | 2.6131 in total |
3.082 in total | shots per 90 | 2.9145 in total |
3.080 in total | take-ons tried per 90 | 9.3463 in total |
1.130 in total | tackles per 90 | 1.572 in total |
0.39 in total | interceptions per 90 | 0.420 in total |
3.799 in total | duels won per 90 | 9.0446 in total |
80% | pass completion | 81% |
Goals and assists are counted from match events; the other counts come from the provider's detailed match stats. Squad importance describes the current club role over its recent club-game window; it is independent of the comparison window.
Have they played each other?
They have never been on opposite sides in a competitive game. The one time they were, Spain and Brazil drew 3–3 in a friendly at the Santiago Bernabéu on 26 March 2024: Yamal, then 16, won the penalty for Spain's first goal and set up the second, and Raphinha played the first half for Brazil. Both started on the right of their attack, so they were on opposite flanks. The list below leaves friendlies out. As team-mates, up to 10 October 2026 they had both played in 123 of Barcelona's 186 competitive games since Yamal's debut, though in 15 of them, all but one before the summer of 2024, they were never on the pitch at the same time. Barcelona won 93 of the 123, drew 15 and lost 15. They have played three finals together, all against Real Madrid and all won: the Spanish Super Cup finals of January 2025 and January 2026, in each of which Raphinha scored twice, and the 2025 Copa del Rey final, in which Yamal set up two goals. Both have scored in the same game 16 times, and Barcelona won all 16. We checked all 123 against ESPN's line-ups and match events and they agree, game for game; the list updates after each new game they both play. Raphinha missed the 3–0 win over Getafe on 10 October 2026 with a thigh problem, and Barcelona were due to host Real Madrid on 25 October.
Looking up their matches…
What the numbers don't show
The 2025/26 figures on the card rest on very different amounts of football: 2,431 minutes for Raphinha and 4,468 for Yamal, club and country together. Raphinha injured his right hamstring three separate times that season, and the first injury flared up again in October: he missed nine Barcelona games in the autumn of 2025 and both legs of the Champions League quarter-final against Atlético Madrid in April 2026, and did not play again at the World Cup after going off 40 minutes into Brazil's second game. Per-90 figures built on fewer minutes are less steady, because each game moves them more, which is why the card's 2025/26 view points out the gap in minutes.
A share of each one's numbers comes from the other. In ESPN's match data, which our records match goal for goal, Yamal had set up 11 of Raphinha's goals by 10 October 2026 and Raphinha seven of Yamal's, eleven of those 18 in 2024–25. The first came in a 4–1 home defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in April 2024, and at Sevilla on 19 September 2026 Yamal set up the second and third goals of Raphinha's hat-trick. One of the 11, against Benfica in March 2025, Yamal later said had been a shot that came off as a pass.
Their positions have changed far more for Raphinha. In ESPN's line-ups Yamal started on the right in all 85 games they began together up to 10 October 2026. Raphinha started 66 of them on the left, nine as a central No 10, two on the right of Xavi's midfield and eight at centre-forward, the role Flick gave him once Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres had gone in the summer of 2026.
Estimated value
Lamine Yamal's Oddsivio estimated value is higher: €283m (#1 of 9,335 players valued) to Raphinha's €95m (#24 of 9,335 players valued). Raphinha's estimate rose 57% since season start; Yamal's estimate rose 36% since season start.Oddsivio estimated value — a model estimate from recent performance data, not betting advice.
Raphinha
Oddsivio estimated value
€95m
+57% since season start
#24 of 9,335 players valued#8 of 506 in La Liga
Lamine Yamal
Oddsivio estimated value
€283m
+36% since season start
#1 of 9,335 players valued#1 of 506 in La Liga
Questions fans ask
Who is better, Raphinha or Yamal?
The awards have gone both ways. LaLiga named Raphinha its player of the season for 2024–25 and Yamal for 2025–26, and UEFA put both in its Champions League team of the season for 2024–25. The 2025 Ballon d'Or voters gave Yamal 1,059 points and Raphinha 620. Raphinha has argued it both ways himself: in January 2026 he said that, personally, he would have placed himself first for 2025, and in September 2026 he said of Yamal and the 2026 award: "He's the candidate. One of one." Age sits under all of it: Raphinha turns 30 in December 2026, and Yamal turns 20 the following July.
Raphinha vs Yamal stats: how do their goals and assists compare?
It depends on the season. Counting club and country in competitive games, Raphinha scored 38 goals and set up 23 in 64 games in 2024–25, and Yamal scored 21 and set up 22 in 62. In 2025–26 Raphinha had 21 goals and seven assists in 37 games, and Yamal 25 and 20 in 55. Assists are counted differently from one provider to the next: Barcelona's own count had Raphinha on 25 for the club with a game of 2024–25 still to play, and The Guardian gives 26, where these figures, and our records, use ESPN's 22 for Barcelona. In 2026–27, up to 10 October, Raphinha had scored 14 goals in eight competitive games, all for Barcelona, and Yamal 12 in 13 for Barcelona and Spain.
Are Raphinha and Yamal friends?
They describe it as something closer. Raphinha told GQ Spain in November 2025 that the rivalry people imagined between them did not exist and that he felt Yamal was part of his family. In May 2026 he told TNT Sports that the celebration they share was something they had seen online and agreed to do, with no great meaning beyond a sense of brotherhood, and in September 2026 he told The Guardian that big brother described him better than father figure. Yamal said in April 2025 that the best advice he had ever been given was a message from Raphinha, though he would not say what it said.
Who takes Barcelona's penalties, Raphinha or Yamal?
Neither has had the job to himself. Robert Lewandowski took most of Barcelona's penalties up to 2024–25. In 2025–26 the two took 12 of Barcelona's 15 between them, and in ESPN's match data Yamal scored six and missed one and Raphinha scored five. Raphinha handed one to Yamal at Levante in September 2026. In 2026–27, with Lewandowski gone, Raphinha had scored all three he took up to 10 October, and Yamal had scored one and had one saved against Racing Santander.
Who is Barcelona's captain, Raphinha or Yamal?
Raphinha, since 5 September 2026, when Flick made him the club's captain for 2026–27, the first Brazilian to hold the role. Flick picked Pedri as second captain, and a squad vote made Eric García, Frenkie de Jong and Yamal third to fifth. Flick said Raphinha, as the centre-forward, starts the team's pressing with his intensity and speed. On contracts, in September 2026 Deco, the sporting director, told the club's members that Raphinha's deal, which ran to June 2028, would be extended to 2030; Yamal is signed until June 2031.
What have Raphinha and Yamal won together?
With Barcelona, by October 2026, two league titles together, in 2024–25 and 2025–26, the 2025 Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cups of 2025 and 2026; both played in all three finals. Both are also credited with the 2022–23 title, when Yamal played seven minutes of one game. Raphinha won the 2023 Super Cup before Yamal's debut, and two cups in Portugal with Sporting. With Spain, Yamal won EURO 2024 and the 2026 World Cup. Raphinha has yet to win a senior trophy with Brazil, whose 2026 World Cup ended with a round-of-16 defeat by Norway.