Caption: Yamal after scoring his objective towards France.Article data
- Writer, Editorial
- Position, BBC Information World
-
9 julio 2024
Think about enjoying in your nation at a significant event at simply 16. Lamine Yamal is doing that – and extra.
The Barcelona star, the youngest man to ever play in a European Championship, additionally grew to become the youngest ever scorer after scoring a surprising equaliser towards France in Tuesday’s semi-final.
Spain ended up profitable the match 2-1 and can be within the closing in Berlin on Sunday.
The winger, whose full identify is Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana, has already performed 51 occasions for Barcelona and scored seven targets, so it ought to come as no shock to see him among the many greatest.
Yamal, a scandalously precocious expertise, will flip 17 on July 13, the eve of the Euro closing.
The report for the youngest scorer at a European Championship was taken by Johan Vonlanthen, the Colombian-born Swiss striker who scored in his workforce’s defeat to France in 2004 on the age of 18 years and 141 days.
Yamal had additionally beforehand change into the youngest participant at a European Championship, overtaking Poland’s Kacper Kozlowski (17 years and 246 days) in a gaggle stage draw towards Spain in Seville in June 2021.
And it appears to be like like Yamal might break just a few extra data within the coming days.
Caption: Yamal celebrating with Dani Olmo Spain’s second objective towards France.
“He’ll do issues we can not even think about,” says Iván Carrasco, who coached him within the decrease classes.
“I bear in mind him as a baby who was very conscious of his expertise. In sport, gifted individuals are usually very egocentric, however not Yamal.”
“I noticed a beneficiant youngster who did not search recognition. As a coach, you typically suppose: ‘What can I educate him, if he does issues that I am unable to even think about from the bench?’”
“The nearer you might be to Lamine, the extra you realise that the label ‘decisive’ is an understatement. He’s a really, very particular footballer.”
Former Barcelona reporter and present Sport TV journalist Jaume Marcet remembers the day he knew he was watching a prodigy.
Marcet, an professional on Barcelona’s youth system, mentioned: “Essentially the most brutal efficiency I’ve seen in youth soccer was Lamine’s within the closing of the Catalonia cadet event.”
He added that “I had seen Messi act brutally, however by no means something like what Lamine did in that match, with guys older than him. That day he did every part.”
“A ray of hope”
Caption: Yamal within the semi-final towards France.
Yamal’s signature “304” celebration includes folding three fingers on his proper hand, making a “0” along with his thumb and index finger, and 4 fingers on his left hand.
It’s a tribute to the neighborhood the place he grew up, Rocafonda 304, an space on the outskirts of Barcelona that’s not often visited by the thousands and thousands of vacationers who flock to the capital of Catalonia and one of the crucial deprived not solely in Catalonia however in all of Spain.
Son of an Equatorial Guinean mom and a Moroccan father, after being seen in Barcelona when he was 7 years previous enjoying on the cement courts of Rocafonda, his father took him by the hand to Barcelona, the place he requested: “Would you like my son to play for Barcelona?
After they mentioned “sure,” he replied, “Nicely, first give him an schooling.”
Yamal moved to the La Masia academy in Barcelona, despite the fact that he lived close by.
In an interview with the newspaper Sport, Xavi Martín, former director of La Masia, Barcelona’s academy for younger skills, remembers the assembly held between the participant, his mother and father and his then agent, Iván de la Peña, in order that the boy might stay at La Masía.
“We met on a Tuesday and by Saturday I used to be already packing my luggage,” he recalled.
Yamal’s success will not be solely its personal, however that of a whole area that has been ignored and degraded till now.
She is a beacon of hope for individuals who see in her success that goals can come true; that something is feasible.
Yamal fell in love with soccer whereas watching his father and cousin play within the park within the neighborhood the place he lived.
“I spent extra time within the park than at dwelling. Each time I set foot outdoors it was to play soccer. These experiences stick with me,” he mentioned.
The data are coming one after one other. He’s the youngest to play for Barcelona, at 15 years and 290 days, since Armando Sagi, who was 15 in 1922.
At 16 years and 57 days previous, he grew to become the youngest participant and scorer in Spain.
Caption: Yamal has already damaged a number of data.
Future Ballon d’Or?
Yamal’s expertise additionally didn’t go unnoticed by the particular person many dare to match him to: Lionel Messi.
In a WhatsApp message to a member of his workforce, the Argentine star commented on how “straightforward” the teen makes the sport look.
Messi already talked about Yamal when he was requested concerning the gamers who will struggle for the Ballon d’Or within the coming years.
The participant himself is a realist. “There’ll by no means be one other like Messi,” Yamal replied, referring to the fixed comparisons between him and the Barcelona legend.
He could also be proper, however nowadays you may see an enormous banner at Camp Nou with an image of Yamal making the 304 gesture and a brand that claims “The long run would not wait.”
What stays of this summer time will decide whether or not the longer term has already arrived.
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