Barcelona midfielder Gavi has rated Lamine Yamal as the best player in the world after Lionel Messi. Yamal has created quite a wave with his extraordinary skills and he is undoubtedly the next big thing in sport.

The 17-year-old scored against Real Betis in Barcelona’s commanding 5-1 win in Copa del Rey on Wednesday. The youngster from Spain also assisted two goals and had one goal ruled out for off-side.

The Spaniard has scored nine goals this season and has provided 13 assists for his team in 24 appearances and thus he has been in sensational form.

“Yes, he is,” Gavi told reporters when asked if Yamal is already the best player in the game. “Well, after Lionel Messi, he’s the best.”

Yamal has already clinched the Kopa Trophy and the Golden Boy award, which is given to the best young player in the world.

“You know, Gavi’s very emotional, so I say yes as well,” Barça coach Hansi Flick said in a news conference when asked if he agreed with Gavi’s take on Yamal. “You can see it. I think in great matches you see big talent and he’s showed it many times. He’s on a really good way. But we have to take care about him.”

The German was delighted with the team’s impressive performance and said they ticked the right boxes to advance to the quarterfinal draw.

“For us, today was very important after the big win against Real Madrid,” the German said. “It was very good to see how all the team come back because we travel [back from Saudi Arabia] and we train only yesterday.

“So it’s good to see this, how we play today, the performance from the beginning. We controlled the game and this is really great to see how they do.

“The big goal [is to play like this in LaLiga]. We are looking match to match, of course Saturday is the next one against Getafe. We want to play and be ready for that and win.”

Barca will next face Getafe on Saturday.