Former Argentina and Manchester City striker Sergio ‘Kun’ Agüero spoke to Catalan sports daily El Mundo Deportivo ahead of Saturday’s El Clásico. The 36-year-old compared both Vinicius Jr. and FC Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal and if push came to shove, the Argentine stated that it’s the ‘Blaugrana’ star he would prefer in his team.

Agüero claimed: “regarding talent, Lamine has much more than Vinicius, although the Brazilian has more experience and is possibly regarded as a better player given the titles he has won with Real Madrid. Vinicius is one of the ‘top 3’ in the world, but due to age and talent and promise, I would prefer Lamine,” claimed the Argentine, adding, “we have to see how he (Lamine) continues over the next few years because so much will depend on his mindset and that will be instrumental in determining how far he can go, but, at present, he shows that he has a talent that very few have.”

The now retired striker also offered his thoughts on Kylian Mbappé's start with Real Madrid: “At present we’re not seeing the PSG Mbappé who absolutely destroyed his rivals in the French league”.

Kun gives Barça the nod

As for the Clasico and a prediction, Agüero he sees Barcelona as slight favourites, although he warns: “Real Madrid don’t even need 20% of the ball and they can score. Why is that? We don’t know but historically, we’ve seen that they are a team who never throw in the towel and I saw this at close quarters when I played with Atlético.

Many people put it down to luck, but if a team constantly can secure wins in the final minutes, it’s down to more than just luck and can be attributed to an attitude that is absent from so many teams.”

Kun also analysed Atlético’s current form and reflected on one of Simeone’s recent comments, when the coach said that De Paul wasn’t performing at his club like he did with Argentina: “I don’t know what he meant. I found it strange that he said that when it’s the coach who should try and get as much out of the player.

I also struggle to understand why Correa doesn’t play with more frequency as he’s a fine player and he has saved many games for Atlético and ‘Cholo’ and don’t understand why Simeone doesn’t give him more match time. Against Real Madrid, De Paul was playing well and he took him off and for me that was something incomprehensible”.