Poland’s veteran striker Robert Lewandowski reckons Spain’s winger Lamine Yamal was not at his absolute best in the FIFA World Cup despite leading La Roja to glory. Yamal scored one goal in eight matches of the quadrennial tournament.

Initially, Yamal didn’t start in the first few matches for Spain due to fitness woes as he was recovering from a hamstring injury.

“Honestly, no, we didn’t [see his best this tournament]. The best performance, the best Lamine for me, of course, wasn’t the last season, but two seasons ago, that was for me now the best version of Lamine Yamal,” Lewandowski told ESPN.

“He’s still young, he came to the World Cup after injury and he didn’t play for like eight weeks so it’s tough if you don’t play eight weeks and you have to start playing in the world cup, then you don’t have time for the training just from game to game. But he showed really good quality. The Spain players and the team helped Lamine and Lamine also helped the whole team. I think that this cooperation was perfect.”

Lewandowski has observed Yamal from close quarters as he played 127 matches with the youngster across all competitions for Barcelona.

“I know a lot of players from Spain and I spent so much time in Barcelona with them, so I supported them a lot,” Lewandowski said. “Of course, I know from Argentina personally only Leo, but I know that he won the last World Cup. That’s why I support the Spanish national team because if you play with them, you spend a lot of time together then it’s easier to support this team.

“I was happy because I know they were ready to win the World Cup. They are very young and the future is in front of them.”

Poland, on the other hand, could not qualify for the World Cup.