Robert Lewandowski shares his thoughts on Lamine Yamal's performance at the 2026 World Cup

Experienced Polish striker Robert Lewandowski shared interesting thoughts about his former teammate Lamine Yamal following the Spain national team's victory at the 2026 World Cup. According to him, the young talent was not at his peak physical form during the tournament, yet still made a huge contribution to the team's success. This is reported by Goal.com reports .

Lamine Yamal arrived at this prestigious competition after a serious injury. The 19-year-old winger, who missed the final part of the La Liga season with Barcelona due to a hamstring injury, had not played for eight weeks. In an interview with ESPN, Lewandowski emphasized that this specific factor prevented the player from performing at his maximum level.

Post-injury recovery and coach's tactics

Spain national team head coach Luis de la Fuente managed Yamal's playing time in the early stages of the tournament to preserve his physical condition. Nevertheless, the young star played a total of 616 minutes in 8 matches during the World Cup. In addition to scoring one goal, he completed 35 successful dribbles, recording the best performance in the competition in this regard.

"To be honest, we didn't see the best version of Lamine in this tournament. For me, his strongest performances were not last season, but two years ago. It is very difficult to suddenly participate in the World Cup after not playing for eight weeks. There was no time for training, only moving from game to game," Lewandowski explained.

Spain and Argentina rivalry

When Spain and Argentina faced off in the final, Robert Lewandowski did not hide the fact that he was rooting for "La Roja" because of his former club teammates. At a time when the Poland national team failed to qualify for the tournament, the striker preferred to support his friends from Barcelona.

Although he is personally acquainted with Lionel Messi and respects his previous World Cup title, Lewandowski stated that he spent more time with the youngsters in the Spain squad. In his opinion, the current Spain team is very young and has a bright future.

On the way to the 2026 World Cup, the Spain national team achieved a historic victory by defeating giants such as Portugal, France, and Argentina in the final. Despite the difficulties after his injury, Lamine Yamal was able to become an integral part of the team mechanism. Lewandowski called this collaboration "perfect" and highly praised the young talent's skill.