Lamine Yamal debuts, a boy of 15 years and 290 days

2023-04-29 23:09:03

The protagonist

April 29. 10:47 p.m. Quiet night at the Camp Nou with 4-0 for Barça and Betis ending with nine players due to Joaquín’s injury (second half) and Edgar’s expulsion (first). So, Xavi orders a change that has a unique meaning.

Gavi leaves the grass and the figure of a child appears, who has not even stepped foot in the Johan Cruyff stadium to play with the subsidiary. Just a minute before, Joaquín suffered an injury to his right knee. And Lamine Yamal slipped into the game, a player who is actually a child. Just 15 years. 15 years and 290 days. The newest to debut with Barça. And the fifth in the history of the League.

At only 15 years old… Lamine Yamal debuts with the first team ???????? pic.twitter.com/BGphyJQDO8

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) April 29, 2023

When he stepped on the wet grass of the Barcelona stadium, Lamine Yamal opened a page of history. He was the youngest player to do it. He was breaking all the records when he can’t even sign the first professional contract. Something that will happen when he is 16 years old.

He leaned back on the left flank of the attack, with personality from the first seconds. Asking for the ball, daring with the dribble, running into the body of Rui Silva, the Betis goalkeeper. Exhibiting an unusual self-confidence, inappropriate for a teenager as he is, when he went to the axis of the attack to serve a wonderful inside ball that Dembélé spoiled with a bad shot.

The best

Raphinha was the best. Definitely. An assist, that traditional curve from the outside in for Christensen to head in for 1-0, and then a great goal, 3-0, taking advantage of an excellent through ball from Busquets, which should have been checked, yes, by the VAR for a few minutes.

“I always believe that I can do something more, we needed to respond and respond with this very important victory after what happened in Vallecas”, admitted the Brazilian. “We knew what was missing in the last game, it was some attitude. And that’s why we played like this,” added the former Leeds striker.

Raphinha was exhibited the night that Dembélé returned, transformed, now yes, into the idol of Barcelona. Up to three spectacular ovations received the French before stepping on the grass. Raphinha left the field, who received a hug from Xavi, and the public, that he was still in the stadium despite the rain, blessed rain, that fell on Barcelona, ​​he went crazy. “It’s great to have Ousmane and Crhistensen back,” said the Brazilian.

And, curiously, the night Dembélé returned, he was overshadowed by the dazzling appearance of Lamine Yamal. “When I was 15 years old, I played for my neighborhood team and he entered this stadium with so many people,” said Raphinha.

Marking to…

Barça has already been working for months on the remodeling of the squad. A squad that has reached him to comfortably lead the League, but that he has bumped into in Europe. First, in the Champions League; then, in the Europa League. An imperfect squad, which is far from the ideal expressed by Xavi at the beginning of this season when he came to describe it as a “squad”.

But the coach does not have a natural right back (Koundé, Sergi Roberto, Araujo and even Balde have paraded through that position without being specialists) nor a nine that covers absences, either due to injury or suspension of Lewandowski. Pending, for example, the future of Messi, who ends his contract on June 30 with Paris SG and gives no clues about his continuity in the Parque de los Príncipes.

“The market opens in summer, but the obligation of the sports management is to be non-stop and work all year”, has revealed Mateu Alemany, Barça’s sporting director to Movistar. “We are ready to start acting in our own squad, it’s going to be an interesting summer, I’m telling you,” added the executive who has control over the restructuring of the squad.

Related news

In addition, Barça needs to reduce the salary mass by 200 million to adjust to fair play, in addition to working on the search for players, especially at zero cost. That would include, for example, Íñigo Martínez, the Athletic center-back, whose contract ends at the end of the season. Like Ilkay Gündogan, the Manchester City midfielder, who is also free. Pending, in addition, Xavi to reinforce the position of right back and find out if Aubameyang, dissatisfied as he is at Chelsea, finds a way out of London, also without any financial impact, and returns to the Camp Nou.

Besides, of course, Messi.