BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Lamine Yamal donned the No. 10 jersey once worn by Lionel Messi and took another step forward in his path to global stardom by helping to lead Barcelona to a second straight Spanish league title.
The 18-year-old Yamal, who is missing the last games of the season with a muscle injury, is set to star for Spain at the upcoming World Cup and currently leads Barcelona in both goals and assists for the first time.
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Barcelona's Lamine Yamal ahead of the Spanish La Liga soccer match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Marcus Rashford celebrates the opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Marcus Rashford celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra)
Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick lifts his award to the sky celebrating after defeating Real Madrid 2-0 to win the Spanish La Liga soccer championship with three rounds to spare, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal and Raphinha Barcelona celebrate after winning the Spanish La Liga soccer match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid that makes them Spanish league champions in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Hansi Flick’s side clinched Barcelona's 29th domestic title with three games left after a 2-0 win over rival Real Madrid at Camp Nou on Sunday.
While lacking the overpowering attacking verve of the 2024-2025 title run, Barcelona had more than enough firepower to capitalize on the repeated slips by Madrid, which will finish a second straight season without a major title since the arrival of Kylian Mbappé.
Here’s a closer look at how Barcelona again won La Liga:
Since his debut at age 15, Yamal has delivered performance after brilliant performance to earn the privilege of being considered Barcelona’s heir apparent to the one-and-only Messi.
Yamal leads Barcelona in scoring (jointly with Ferran Torres on 16 goals) and a competition-leading 11 assists in La Liga, despite missing some games with injury.
He also leads the league in dribbles with 133.
That increased output helped make up for the absence of Raphinha during two injury layoffs for the Brazil forward and the diminished role of veteran striker Robert Lewandowski, who at age 37 lost his first-choice status.
Beyond the numbers, his creativity with the ball and the fancy footwork, Yamal provided his contagious competitive attitude that never faded.
Barcelona again had the top midfield and used it to crush the competition.
It was leading the 20-team division both in scoring and defense with 91 goals scored and 31 conceded.
Pedri González is only 23 but is playing like a veteran, setting the pace and delivering the key pass forward in the style of former Barcelona and Spain star Xavi Hernández.
Fermín López was targeted by Chelsea in last summer’s transfer window, but the 22-year-old stayed put and emerged as a key player for Flick. Fermín scored 13 goals and made nine assists.
Flick figured out how to make up for the loss of his most physical defender after Íñigo Martínez left for the Saudi Arabian league in the offseason. Few would have imagined that Gerard Martín, a young left back who had struggled at times in the previous campaign, would end up flourishing as a central defender alongside Pau Cubarsí, who at age 19 delivered another superb season anchoring the backline.
Flick also found ways to endure a spate of muscle injuries that sidelined Yamal, Raphinha, Jules Koundé, Frenkie de Jong and other key players for several weeks at a time.
The arrival of 'keeper Joan García shored up the goal, while the club overall got a boost by returning to partially refurbished Camp Nou after two years playing at a smaller stadium
With Flick often using Lewandowski as a substitute, the attack became a more collective effort.
Striker Ferran Torres used his greater mobility to link up well with Yamal and company and has scored 16 league goals, three more than Lewandowski. Marcus Rashford has contributed with eight goals — including the one on Sunday — and several assists as he adapts well to Barcelona while on loan from Manchester United.
That said, the club is reportedly looking to sign a striker this summer, putting the immediate future of both Lewandowski and Rashford in doubt.
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Barcelona's Lamine Yamal ahead of the Spanish La Liga soccer match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Marcus Rashford celebrates the opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Marcus Rashford celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra)
Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick lifts his award to the sky celebrating after defeating Real Madrid 2-0 to win the Spanish La Liga soccer championship with three rounds to spare, in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal and Raphinha Barcelona celebrate after winning the Spanish La Liga soccer match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid that makes them Spanish league champions in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran sent its response to the latest U.S. proposal to end the Iran war via Pakistani mediators on Sunday, but U.S. President Donald Trump quickly rejected it in a social media post as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” — the latest setback to efforts to resolve the standoff in the Persian Gulf that has throttled shipping and sent energy prices soaring.
Iranian state television reported that Tehran rejected the U.S. proposal as amounting to surrender, insisting instead on “war reparations by the U.S., full Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, an end to sanctions, and the release of seized Iranian assets.”
Washington’s latest proposal addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the strait and roll back Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump's rejection of the Iranian response included no details. In an earlier post, he accused Tehran of “playing games” with the United States for nearly 50 years, adding: "They will be laughing no longer!"
Trump is giving diplomacy “every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC earlier.
Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard publicly since the war began, “issued new and decisive directives for the continuation of operations and the powerful confrontation with the enemies” while meeting with the head of the joint military command, the state broadcaster reported, with no details.
The fragile ceasefire was tested when a drone ignited a small fire on a ship off Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drones entering their airspace. The UAE said it shot down two drones and blamed Iran. No casualties were reported, and no one immediately claimed responsibility.
Qatar's Foreign Ministry called the ship attack a “dangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and safety of maritime trade routes and vital supplies in the region." The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center gave no details about the ship's owner or origin.
Kuwait Defense Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al Otaibi said forces responded to drones but did not say where they came from.
Iran and armed allied groups such as the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group have used drones to carry out hundreds of strikes since the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.
Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. Iran has largely blocked the strategic waterway that's key to the global flow of oil, natural gas and fertilizer since the war began, rattling world markets.
The U.S. military in turn has blockaded Iranian ports since April 13, saying it has turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four. On Friday, it struck two Iranian oil tankers it said were trying to breach the blockade. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy says any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a “heavy assault” on U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships.
Another sticking point in negotiations is Iran’s highly enriched uranium. The U.N. nuclear agency says Iran has more than 440 kilograms (970 pounds) enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons grade.
In an interview posted late Saturday, an Iranian military spokesperson said forces were on “full readiness” to protect sites where uranium is stored.
“We considered it possible that they might intend to steal it through infiltration operations or heli-borne operations,” Brig. Gen. Akrami Nia told the IRNA news agency.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an excerpt of an interview with CBS airing Sunday said the war isn't over because the enriched uranium needs to be taken out of Iran. “Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there,’ and I think it can be done physically,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Moscow’s proposal to take enriched uranium from Iran to help negotiate a settlement remains on the table.
The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely at its Isfahan nuclear complex, the International Atomic Energy Agency director-general told The Associated Press last month. The facility was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in the 12-day war last year and faced less intense attacks this year.
Iran's deputy foreign minister warned against a planned French-British effort that aims to support maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz after hostilities are over.
“The presence of French and British vessels, or those of any other country, for any possible cooperation with illegal U.S. actions in the Strait of Hormuz that violate international law will be met with a decisive and immediate response from the armed forces,” Kazem Gharibabadi said on social media.
French President Emmanuel Macron responded by saying it won't be a military deployment but an international mission to secure shipping once conditions allow.
Several attacks against ships in the Persian Gulf have occurred over the past week, and a U.S. effort to “guide” ships through the strait was quickly paused.
South Korea announced initial findings from an investigation that said two unidentified objects struck the South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU about one minute apart while it was anchored in the strait last week, causing an explosion and fire. Officials have yet to determine who was responsible.
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
Women walk in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A Revolutionary Guard soldier stands at the counter of a fast food restaurant in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The front page of the Sunday May 10, 2026, edition of Iranian newspaper, Jamejam, is seen with a cartoon satirizing the U.S. President Donald Trump that asks: "Open the the Strait of Hormuz" on a news stand in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Vehicles drive past banners showing portraits of the school children who were killed during a strike on a school in southern town of Minab on Feb. 28, at Tajrish square in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU is docked after being damaged from a fire following an explosion in the Strait of Hormuz, at a port in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 8, 2026. (Kim Sang-hun/Yonhap via AP)
Container ships sit at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, May 2, 2026.(Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
