Barcelona will restrict minutes of future No. 10 starlet next season to avoid burnout | OneFootball

Lamine Yamal is the talk of the town across Europe after enjoying a fine breakthrough season at FC Barcelona and now going on to star for the Spanish national team at the UEFA Euro 2024.

Just 16 years old, Yamal has set the stage alight with his brilliant performances for club and country and is already taking on the role of the main man in attack.

So much so that, there is already talk of Barça handing him the No. 10 shirt as early as next season, with the player himself admitting that he would be willing to take over the mantle.

Barcelona to proceed with caution

While it is well and good to see Yamal flourish at such a rapid rate, it is not lost on Barcelona that he is still only 16 years old and needs to be managed with great care.

As such, sources close to the Catalan club have told Barça Universal that Yamal will see his minutes restricted to a certain extent next season.

Such a measure would be taken so as to avoid burnout for the young attacker who has already amassed a huge workload in his very first season of senior football.

Yamal has accumulated a lot of minutes in his breakthrough season. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

Indeed, Yamal played 50 matches for Barcelona in all competitions in 2023/24, amounting to 2975 minutes of on-field action.

Furthermore, since debuting for Spain in September 2023, he has played 11 times for the Spanish national team, totalling up to 651 minutes – a tally which will grow further if La Roja progress in the Euros.

Barcelona have had first-hand experience of the toll that this kind of workload can take on a young player, having witnessed Pedri crumble to injuries after burning himself out in the 2020/21 campaign.

At 16, Yamal has a long career ahead of him and it makes sense for Barça to want to proceed with some degree of caution looking at how injuries have had a devastating effect on Ansu Fati’s career and how Pedri has also continued to face recurring fitness problems.