Lamal Yamine, reasons, arguments and fears of a meteoric rise

2023-04-30 09:46:38

In that child, born in Esplugues, named Lamal Yamin Nasraoui Ebana, With a Moroccan father and an Equatorial Guinean mother, who made his debut for Barça in the win over Betis at just 15 years and 290 days old, they cohabit football from the past, present and future.

Past because everything is as simple as glimpsing a special talent, who came to the club at the age of seven from an anonymous team like La Torreta de Granollers. Since then, he has been the jewel of La Masia.

Present because no one got to the Camp Nou – it is Messi – like this imaginative, daring and self-confident young man who amazed Xavi (“he has been able to score and assist, he can be very big and mark a stage in the team and in the club”, said the coach).

A day that Lamine will never forget ????#LaLigahighlights pic.twitter.com/MF64DwIm7H

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) April 29, 2023

Football from the past, from the present, after a supersonic rise of a cadet (he hasn’t even seen the Barça Atlètic shirt) and, above all, from the future because in that stylized and youthful figure, which hypnotized millions of culés, also nests power of the industry – he changed Iván de la Peña, the agent who took care of him, as he did with Gavi for Jorge Mendes, one of the most famous representatives in the world – and the marketing impact is hidden.

???? Remember his name: ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???? pic.twitter.com/RUc0vQv33x

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) April 29, 2023

Barça protects him on the one hand – he doesn’t speak to the media, as is logical for a child of that age – but, at the same time, they exploit his image with comparisons that can be harmful because they fuel pressure that is unmanageable for anyone.

“Remember his name, Lamine Yamal,” the Barça club tweeted minutes after such an impressive debut, emulating the phrase that Messi uttered, when he was still from Nike, as soon as he launched a wonderful free kick for an advertisement.

“complicated environment”

And the boy, meanwhile, surfing in the middle of a “complicated environment”, as the Barça sports management and Xavi himself know well. Euphemism used, actually, to hide the fight for economic control – some do not see it as a player but as an industry – and the career of a child who lit up the Camp Nou on a rainy night, eclipsing everything.

He left and the comfortable win against Betis was forgotten, which brings Barça closer to the League, leaving the return of Dembélé, after three long months of absence, in the background. Until the fight of Lewandowski (19 goals) with Benzema (17) Because of the Pichichi, he had a minor air because of what that young man who lives in La Masia irradiated.

Appeared Lamin Yamal, a left-handed teenager with dribbling and self-confidence, and the culé was trapped. Not only because of what he saw in that boy who wore a number 41, more typical of an NBA or NFL player than football. Eleven minutes full of talent and daring.

“He’s not afraid, he doesn’t look like he’s 15. Lamine can be something very big”

Xavi, coach of Barça

“He’s not afraid, he doesn’t look like he’s 15 years old,” Xavi confessed. He was right. In 11 minutes he left two extraordinary brush strokes. He stepped into the Betis area and his kick collided with the body of Rui Silva, the goalkeeper, who frustrated a perfect night: debut, at 15 years and 290 days, and goal.

Later, he left the left wing, where he formed an insultingly young wing with Ansu, a veteran at his side, barely 20 years old, to position himself in the front of the attack where he drew a wonderful pass to Dembélé. A very Lamine Yamal pass, a boy who is neither a pure winger nor a classic center forward. One thing or another. But he has a special angel.

11 minutes, 12 passes, 0 misses

That pass, pumped, precise, beautiful where the ball seemed to go in slow motion, synthesized his football. Brash, smart and creative. Eleven minutes and 12 passes without any error. One hundred percent accurate, although he lost three balls and tried two dribbles without success.

???? And you, what were you doing at 15 years, 9 months and 16 days?

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) April 29, 2023

Lamine Yamal was known by the wise men of La Masia as the journalist Jaume Marcet, from that Barça TV that now the club closes without paying attention to the football and emotional heritage that will be lost when the screen goes black. People like him have seen the evolution of a child who, as Bojan always remembers, must learn to live with “management of expectations.”

managing the extraordinary

On the way there are always much more chosen than those who, in the end, arrive. And the club, with Xavi as sports leader, sent the boy the message that he loves him. He really loves him because he is a “talent”, as the coach recalled, “difficult to find in world football”.

There is no money, at least at the Camp Nou, for transfers like this. Hence, the fear of losing it when a dream career is guessed. And that real danger of going before even enjoying it caused the strategic movement of the club. ‘This is what we can offer you’, Barça came to tell Lamine Yamal, his family and, above all, his agent (Mendes),

But in the face of such supersonic appearances, it is time for extraordinary efforts because the temptation also lives far from the Camp Nou and the schedule of Mendes, his new agent, is endless, with direct access to the big European clubs.

From Juvenile A to Camp Nou

The road has been so fast that it now makes the next steps under suspicion. He made it to the junior team (7 years old) and hasn’t needed a decade to break all the records. He went through the lower categories to Juvenil A, where he has played 28 games this season (20 in the League, seven goals), two in the Copa del Rey (one goal) and six in the UEFA Youth League.

From there, to the Camp Nou. Without playing with the subsidiary because his football is as fast as his future. “When I was 15 years old, I was playing in my neighborhood team and he was here, in front of thousands of people,” revealed Raphinha to understand the dimension of his teammate’s premiere.

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When Lamine Yamal turns 16 – it will be on July 13 – he should sign his first professional contract, unless he chooses another path, such as, for example, Ilaix Moriba, who tasted the Camp Nou, but flew to Germany to return through the back door to Spain and join Valencia.

The memory of Via Messi always remains, where Rijkaard supervised his irrepressible ascent with exquisite tact and intelligence. And that Leo was then 18 years old. Lamine Yamal is not even 16 yet.