Meeting Messi as a baby, stunners for his country at 16. Welcome to the world of Lamine Yamal

He is the boy who plays like a man and he lit up Tuesday’s (Wednesday AEST) Euro 2024 semi-final between Spain and France with a wonder goal. But for all his composure and maturity on the pitch, there are reminders of the childhood Lamine Yamal has only recently left behind.

Take his beloved scarf, for example, the one whose smell would remind him of his mother, father and the family dog and which a young Yamal would go to sleep clutching. He was inseparable from it, sometimes seen sniffing it in class at school or before he went out onto the pitch.

His mother, Sheila Ebana, would eventually tire of it and threw it out so Yamal instead found a blanket to fill the void and would comfort-wrap himself in it.

These days he is more likely to relax playing FIFA or Fortnite on his PlayStation 5 with his cousin Moha. He rates himself an eight out of 10 at the football video game. Or watching box sets – he is on Breaking Bad at the moment, having just finished Baby Reindeer, or at least he is when he can peel himself away from binge-watching manga and anime, the hugely popular Japanese animations.

When he donned his Beats headphones in the home dressing room in Cologne before helping Spain come from behind to take apart Georgia, there is every chance he was listening to Myke Towers. The Puerto Rican rapper is a particular favourite and helps to focus and energise him before games. When relaxing with friends, it tends to be one of two other Puerto Rican artists, Mora or Dei V. In the car with his proud father, they usually settle on Eminem or 50 Cent.

Welcome to the world of a 16-year-old boy wonder, the youngest debutant in Barcelona’s storied history, the youngest player to score for Spain and now the youngest player – and scorer – in the 64-year history of the Euros. Yamal does not turn 17 until a day before the final on July 14, which helps to explain why King Felipe VI of Spain put his head in his hands in disbelief after checking the player’s age when he visited the squad in their dressing room after a comfortable 1-0 victory over Italy.

Lamine Yamal celebrates his spectacular equaliser for Spain in Munich.Credit: AP

His sublime, bending 20-yard pass from the wide, inside-right channel to set up Dani Carvajal for Spain’s third goal on a history-making appearance in their opening 3-0 win over Croatia was followed by impressive showings against Italy and Georgia and then the stunner in the 2-1 win over France in the last four.

Hailing the impact of Yamal and Williams, Spain’s midfield metronome Rodri has suggested the exuberance and energy that comes with the innocence and naivety of youth has proved “contagious” among the squad.

Yet not everyone is overly happy at the onus that has been placed on someone so young, even if Yamal seems to be taking it all in his stride and having the time of his life. Bojan Krkic was just 17 years and 19 days when he made his debut for Barcelona in 2007 and found the pressure intolerable. He was called up for Spain at Euro 2008 but pulled out, declaring himself to be “physically and emotionally shattered”. So, Krkic, who would later end up at Stoke City, knows a thing or two about the pitfalls of asking too much too soon of young players and he was not trying to be a killjoy when he suggested before this tournament that it had been a “big mistake” for Spain to call up Yamal.

He feels the same way about Yamal’s 17-year-old Barcelona teammate, Pau Cubarsi, potentially playing in the Olympics with Spain this summer. “There are many people in many areas who have to understand that they are children, players who are developing,” Krkic said. “We all have to be aware of the great wear and tear it entails after the season, which already involves playing many games.”

Lionel Messi poses with a six-month-old Lamine Yamal in 2007, just four years into the iconic Argentine’s legendary Barcelona career.Credit: AP

Yamal and Spain need not look as far back as Krkic’s experience for a cautionary tale, though. The nine injuries – eight of them muscular – that resulted in Yamal’s Barcelona and Spain teammate, Pedri, missing 85 games over the past three seasons should serve as the biggest warning sign of all as club and country bid to manage their latest prodigy’s playing time in ways that ensure an extraordinary talent is not mishandled.

Pedri played an unacceptable 73 games in his breakthrough campaign when he was called up for both the Euros and Olympics in 2021 before his body broke down.

Yamal will be spared the Olympics this summer, which is something, and there have been concerted moves over the past year to strengthen a naturally impressive physique. He has put on 7kg in muscle mass since pre-season. He has also grown over 2cm in that time, and has seemed completely unfazed by the more cynical attempts to cut this mesmeric dribbler down to size. Sixteen-year-olds do not take free-kicks in teams with designs on winning the big trophies if they do not possess something special.

Back in Rocafonda, the neighbourhood in the town of Mataro 40 minutes drive up the coast from Barcelona where Yamal grew up, they burst with pride at the youngster’s meteoric rise. To Yamal, it is better known as “the 304” – the last three digits of the area’s postcode – and provides the inspiration behind his goal celebration.

The 304 - Lamine Yamal’s tribute to his hometown has become a trademark of the young Barcelona star.Credit: AP

Arms crossed, three fingers raised on his left hand with the index finger and thumb forming an ‘0’ and four fingers raised on his right hand – 304 – it has become what he calls his “signature gesture”, an idea dreamt up by a friend after a kickabout one night.

Although born and raised in Barcelona, Yamal is fiercely proud of his family’s roots. His mother hails from Equatorial Guinea and his father, Mounir Nasraoui, from Morocco, which explains why he has a flag of both countries on his Adidas F50 boots, the same ones worn by his idol Lionel Messi with whom he is already drawing – unhelpful – comparisons.

The comparisons only became more difficult to avoid last week, when photos from 2007 of a six-month-old Yamal and the already-highly touted Messi (then aged 20) resurfaced. The images were taken at Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium for a calendar as part of an annual charity drive by local newspaper Diario Sport and UNICEF.

“We made the calendar with the help of UNICEF. So UNICEF did a raffle in the neighborhood of Roca Fonda in Mataro where Lamine’s family lived. They signed up for the raffle to have their picture taken at the Camp Nou with a Barca player. And they won the raffle,” photographer Joan Monfort said.

Lionel Messi and a six-month-old Lamine Yamal with Yamal’s mother Sheila Ebana in 2007.Credit: AP

Yamal’s parents separated when he was very young, which meant he split his time between Rocafonda and Granollers further north. But both remain central figures in his life. As he got older, he would use his treasured T-16 train pass to get around. His mother’s rice-with-peanut sauce remains his favourite dish and, on the Moroccan side, he cannot get enough of his grandmother’s pastries. He visits both countries as often as he can to see wider family.

You do not have to go far in Rocafonda to get a feel for Yamal fever. At the entrance of a small bakery run by his uncle, Abdul, and plethora of cousins, there is a mural of the player in his Barcelona shirt, surrounded by flags of Morocco, Equatorial Guinea and Spain.

His name now reverberates far beyond the neighbourhood in which he grew up, although it is clear this level-headed teenager is refusing to get ahead of himself.

Yamal told Spanish GQ in an interview this month that the same people who trumpet him as the next Messi are liable to write him off in the next breath. Most, though, are just marvelling at a burgeoning talent; one who lit up the tournament with his sublime goal.

Telegraph, London

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