She has some blonde highlights and uses bracesIt’s normal, he’s 16 years old. He just finished high school and does extracurricular English classes. It’s normal, he’s 16 years old. He likes reggaeton, trap and wears clothes oversizeIt’s normal, he’s 16 years old.
But he is the breadwinner of his family and makes million-dollar financial decisions. It’s not normal, he’s 16 years old. He has a chauffeur and travels first class. It’s not normal, he’s 16 years old. Lionel Messi says he would like to meet him, after having anonymously anointed him; he steals the spotlight at the Euro from Kylian Mbappé, the brand new Real Madrid galactico. And it’s not normal, he’s 16 years old.
His name is Lamine Yamal and he has just catapulted Spain to the final of the European Championship in Germany. He seems normal, but he is not.
A few months ago, according to sources from the sports brand Adidas, the German company asked for an appointment with Lamine Yamal. The agents had a card in store: the presentation video to convince him to sign him was closed by Leo Messi. “I would like you to be part of our family.” Nike sought to counterattack and used Mbappé for its advert. It was too late, the future was already present in modern football and the Frenchman was not a hero but a rival for Yamal. “Lamine saw Messi as his idol, and Mbappé as a player of his generation,” the same sources conclude.
“You have to understand the minds of these kids. These heads are unique, special,” explains Jordi Roura, former director of the Barcelona youth team, responsible for the signing of Lamine Yamal; “to become that kind of player, to withstand the pressure they endure, they must have a different self-esteem. Character, courage, daring, call it what you want.” In short, to become the best, you first have to believe you are the best. “I see him now on the field with the professionals and I have the same feeling as when I saw him in the village team: he is a boy who likes to have fun. He doesn’t change. Nor is he going to change,” says Mounir Nasraoui, the father of the 19, in a chat with Morning Express.
Mounir Nasraoui is from Morocco. He and his family were looking for the idealised prosperity when they moved to Barcelona. There he met Sheila Ebana, a native of Equatorial Guinea. She was 16 when Lamine was born; he was 21. “I did everything possible to support my son and my wife,” Mounir often recalls. Near Mounir’s family, in the Rocafonda neighbourhood (Mataró, Barcelona), which has a 32.8% foreign population, according to Capgrós, a media outlet from Maresme, Lamine bounced from his parents’ house to his grandparents’, as well as from the Plaça Joan XXIII to the cement pitch on the edge of the Rocafonda club. Always with the ball, the eternal ally of the children who need to outwit the hard childhood of the invisible neighbourhoods. “He has the football of the street: a dribbler, fearless, used to playing with older people,” explains Roura.
Mounir changed jobs, some more irregular than others, until his relationship with Sheila broke down. She decided to move to Granollers, got a job at a McDonald’s and rebuilt her life. Today she has another partner and Lamine has a brother. For Lamine, the distance between his parents was a whirlwind, sometimes difficult to process, as were his companies for those in charge of the Barcelona youth team.
He had landed in the Barça youth team at the age of 7. “A lot of people ask me: ‘Did Lamine already do these things when he was little? ’” says Jordi Roura, Lamine’s scout. “He was a bit lanky, he walked a bit strangely, but suddenly he had an impressive control. He kicked in a special way, he feinted like no one else. He was different,” he insists. At the time, Lamine lived between Granollers and Mataró. Mounir took him to training. “When other parents arrived by car an hour before the match, I had to get up three, four and sometimes even five hours before to take my son. And then we both went, always by train. Sometimes he fell asleep, other times he played and there were days when he really pissed me off. Childish things. But he has always been very good,” Mounir remembers.
At the time, Barcelona was giving Lamine a scholarship. The money was managed by his parents. However, this administration, at times, was more of a problem than a solution. The club then decided to embrace Lamine’s future. “He had to be protected from everything,” explained a source from the Barcelona youth system at the time. Lamine, aged 13, moved to La Masia. “It was a way of controlling his studies, his diet, his hours of rest,” explains Jordi Roura. But Lamine has not forgotten his neighbourhood. And he has shown this in some of the celebrations of his 10 goals (seven with Barça and three with Spain): with his fingers he makes 304, the last numbers of the postcode of Rocafonda.
La Masia was a shield against bad company and a spear for his maturity. Lamine, at 13, was already making decisions. None as important as when he had to decide on the financial control of his career. Advised by Jorge Mendes’ work group, Lamine Yamal allows himself to be advised on marketing, finance, communication and sports health by the Mendes group, a kind of barrier to his family. In any case, he keeps his two lifelong friends. Since he does not know (cannot) drive, his cousin Mohamed acts as his chauffeur. There is also Sohaid, with fewer official duties, just as close. His parents prefer that Lamine keep his old relationships, those that can be friends with money but not so much with fame: they have been by his side since he was a nobody.
“It’s incredible how easily he adapted to the first team dressing room,” explains a source from the first team. “He’s extroverted, but he doesn’t stand out. He’s clever, because he comes from the street, but he’s very intelligent. He’s always asking questions.” Brilliant on the pitch, sometimes lacking in communication, it’s often difficult to gauge the abilities of sportsmen. “An example of why he’s so intelligent?” asks a source from La Masia. “English classes. The teacher always tells us that he understands everything quicker than the others.” In fact, Lamine has already been encouraged to listen to questions in English. However, he still hasn’t gotten around to answering.
Adept at his studies – he finished his compulsory secondary education during the European Championship – Lamine shines on the pitch. He captivated Xavi Hernández – “very few players with these qualities appear” – and also Luis de la Fuente – “he has that special talent of a chosen one”. His teammates surrender to Lamine, those from Barcelona and the Spanish national team do so. However, they do not want the noise of explosive fame to detonate in his head. Carvajal, for example, against Germany, asked De la Fuente to change him to better calibrate the defensive support. Lamine took note, against France was the game in which he recovered the most balls, four. “It is important to be calm with Lamine, not to create a monster,” concludes a Barcelona teammate.
“I try not to think about being an icon, it doesn’t help me at all on the pitch,” Lamine replies. Always close to his mother – he moved to Sant Joan Despí to be near La Masia – Yamal does not forget his father’s advice. “We are a humble family. We have been through a lot. I have spoken to him many times about other talented footballers who have wasted their careers,” says his father.
And Lamine listens, he also talks. For now, better than anyone else on the pitch at this Euro. With Messi’s boots, he eliminated Mbappé and erased Pelé’s record of precocity. Mature, but streetwise. Academic, but cunning. Intelligent, but conceited. Lamine Yamal, footballer. He seems normal, but he is not.
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