Raised hands and waving flags as the Spanish national anthem played. At the end, applause. An image shared around the peninsula, but which was evident in Mataró, where Lamine Yamal, now the young star of La Roja, lived and grew up. Where his neighbours have seen him fly and where he proudly raised the hand gesture of the number 304, the last three digits of the Rocafonda neighbourhood, a punished and stigmatised neighbourhood of the Catalan city, minutes before the start of the match. Yamal was a seed of hope: in his neighbourhood, the illusion of a future for the youngest; in Spain, a reflection of the euphoria unleashed by the final of the European Championship.
Mataró, hours before the match, was already a party. Beyond the result, the city and the Rocafonda neighbourhood were dressed in red: it was the pride and vindication of their neighbour. “Lamine Yamal, I love you more every day”, was the most heard chant, above the more classic ones. Children and not so children spent their last hours of play in the streets of Rocafonda; football was in the air on every corner. And even more so with the customised motorbikes – like their passengers – in the colours of Spain, the home delivery men with the flags on their backs and the endless number of La Roja shirts, especially with the number ’19’, Lamine’s. Horns, honks and noise as they approached the aforementioned place: Parque Central.
The rush was on minutes before the match started, with the youngest players rushing in as quickly as possible to get a place in front of the six by three metre screen, which ended up being too small for the more than 4,000 fans. “Som-hi Lamine Yamal, Mataró está amb tú” (“Come on Lamine Yamal, Mataró is with you”) read a sign at the entrance next to a photograph of the youngster. The screen projected a video with three of Lamine’s cousins who were with him in Berlin and the madness broke out. The speaker, also from the Rocafonda neighbourhood, encouraged the public, who brought their dinner and their chairs from home to sit among the crowd. Most of them were standing, arms crossed, shouting every foul against them, applauding every favourable action and waiting expectantly for their exciting neighbour to shine. And its mayor, David Bote, sitting a few hours before the start of the match in a bar opposite the now famous concrete pitch where Lamine scored his first goals, confessed the special “excitement” that was being experienced in the Catalan city.
But the dream that came from the pores of Mataró went further. In the Lamine neighbourhood a germ was started – that of the young talent of the footballer, but also that of the fever for the Roja – that spread throughout the peninsula.
Nearby, in Barcelona, some 4,000 people gathered in the Plaça Catalunya, in front of another giant screen, 14 years later, to follow the national team. In a square dyed red and with many Spanish flags, Raül Martínez, wearing a red and yellow Viking hat and a flag on his back, enjoyed the game with three colleagues, with whom he works in an operating room at the Teknon clinic: “It’s been a long time, since the 2010 World Cup, that we haven’t enjoyed a match like that. It’s true that a few years ago, [con el procés] “It might not have been possible, but we know how to differentiate between politics and football.” “It was about time,” agreed Alex, also from the group, explaining that as they walked up the Rambla someone shouted “espanyols” in Catalan, but “they didn’t pay attention”: this Sunday was a day “to enjoy good football and Lamine.” Adrià, from Carmel, went down to the centre with his four-year-old daughter, a Spanish flag and a plastic trumpet. No water or food. “We’ll buy something,” he said with his face painted in the colours of the Roja. “I’m Catalan and I’m Spanish. If there was a strong Catalan team I would also come, we really like good football here, and if one of the key players is Lamine, from Barça, what more can we ask for?”
In front of another of those enormous screens, Barakaldo gathered around 1,500 fans. The atmosphere was one of partying among the kids, which would be linked to the town’s festivities when the match was over, whatever the result. The plastic bags for the drinking party were waiting on the ground. Nico Williams was cheered on when Walker gave him a break on the sideline and he managed to run or try a cross. The decibels increased with each Spanish attack among the supporters who occupied the esplanade of the Bilbao Exhibition Center, far from the urban centre. As if it were a summer resort, the floating population oscillated, because there was not a single passer-by who did not stop for a few minutes.
In Madrid, in front of a large screen located next to the National Library, a huge red stain overflowed the center of the capital. To the rhythm of a DJ and an entertainer, the attendees, mainly young people who lived the minutes before like a big drinking party, entertained themselves chanting the names of the Spanish players. Williams, Yamal and Carvajal were the most chanted names. From the stage, the usual songs were repeated and a constant “Lamine Yamal, I love you more every day.” Down Génova Street, streams of fans of the national team came down while the police tried to put order and channel the flow. Jaime arrived with five friends from Segovia to participate in a party that started at 9 pm, but none of them knew when it would end: “We don’t know where we will sleep, but we will celebrate any result. Even if we lose, this national team has given us many days of joy.”
400 screens in Benidorm
In Benidorm, one of the cities with the highest number of English people, especially in the middle of July, fans began to take up positions early in front of the more than 400 large-format screens that hoteliers and the Visit Benidorm foundation assured were spread throughout the city. Most of them are in the English area and the queen is the one at the La Marina hotel, measuring 50 square metres. A screen visible from any point on its enormous terrace and swimming pool, where some were still cooling off when the match was about to start.
Michelle Baker is a British journalist who has lived in Benidorm for three decades. She had come to see the atmosphere in the English zone, although she would follow the match “in the traditional party club”, with her family and Spanish friends, wearing a Spanish national team shirt and an English flag. “Whatever happens, I have already won,” she says proudly: “regardless of the result, I already feel like I am on the winning team.”
The Spanish fans gathered in the Julio Iglesias auditorium, with a total capacity of 4,000 people, to watch the match on a 30-square-metre screen set up for the occasion. Both fan bases were together, but not mixed up. They enjoyed a tense, intense match with a happy ending. For most, at least. With the opening goal by Nico Williams, Lamine’s partner who assisted him, firecrackers, deafening screams and hugs even from strangers. The party had only just begun.
Information prepared in collaboration with Clara Blanchar, Jon Rivas, Jacobo García and Jorge García
You can follow Morning Express Sports on Facebook and Xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
