On the day he became the “Player of the Match” at the World Cup, Yamal surpassed Mbappe’s record.
In the early morning of July 3, at the SoFi Stadium, the Spain national team secured a convincing 3-0 victory over Austria in the round of 32. Despite not scoring or assisting, Yamal was still evaluated as the best player of the match. Against the Austria national team, the 18-year-old winger of Barcelona achieved a 90% passing accuracy rate, created two chances, completed 5 successful dribbles (most in the match), won 5 duels, and had 14 touches in the opponent’s penalty area (most in the match).
This is the first time Yamal received the “Player of the Match” title at the World Cup. More impressively, he was honored on the day he deeply broke a record of Mbappe. According to Opta, at 18 years and 354 days old, Yamal became the youngest European player in history to achieve 10 victories at the Euro and World Cup. Previously, Mbappe set this record at 23 years and 355 days old, which is about 5 years older than Yamal.
In addition, the impressive performance against Austria also helped Yamal become the youngest player to simultaneously have more than 10 touches in the opponent’s penalty area and more than 10 dribbles in a single World Cup match since 1966.
Not stopping there, Yamal also averaged 12 dribbles per 90 minutes at the 2026 World Cup. This is the best achievement by a player with 200 or more minutes played at this tournament since the time of Jay-Jay Okocha (Nigeria) at the 1998 World Cup, who also averaged 12 dribbles per 90 minutes.
Yamal and his teammates playing sublimely once again helps fans ease their anxiety, especially in the context that the Spain national team will clash with Portugal in the round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup.
