2023-09-15 02:09:08
Where were you at 16 years and 57 days? Your adolescence may have been like everyone else’s, with the kids in the neighborhood, parties in the afternoon and school in the morning. Lamine Yamal, with just turned 16, is already breaking records in the Spanish National Team and in Barça, and is the most exciting talent in a League that needs high-caliber stars today more than ever. Life has changed from one day to the next for the young boy, but what will never be different are his origins, his humble neighborhood, that neighborhood that he remembers in each of his celebrations, the neighborhood of Rocafonda, in Mataró.
Rocafonda, located in El Maresme, Catalonia, Today, according to the National Institute of Statistics, it is one of the neighborhoods in the autonomous community in which almost half of its population is at risk of poverty. Most of the people who live there do not speak Catalan, since they are of African origins, just as the roots of Lamine Yamal. His father and mother are from Morocco and Equatorial Guinea respectively, named Mounir Nasroui and Sheila Ebana. There was a lot of pressure from the Moroccan Football Federation to incorporate the young Lamine into the senior team but, finally, the boy chose to wear the Moroccan shirt. ‘The Red’a team he has represented since the under-15s.
A difficult and complicated origin of a Lamine Yamal who always keeps his neighborhood in mind. In each of his celebrations, Yamal forms a three, a zero and a four referring to the postal code of his home, 08304 in Rocafonda. The origin of this love for his roots is inherited from his father, someone who even on social networks does not hesitate to claim the address of the neighborhood in his username and in all publications about his son.
La Torreta, the origin of a global phenomenon
Image by: Francesc Melcion
The La Torreta neighborhood club is one of the most modest clubs in Catalonia. Located in La Roca Del Vallès, it was the birthplace of a little boy with the dream of one day becoming a professional soccer player. And the fact is that necessity would cause the pearl of Barça to wear short for the humble club. Sheila, Yamal’s mother, coincided at work with the daughter of Inocente Díez, club coordinator. From time to time, the family would visit a churrería attached to the fast food restaurant where the little boy’s mother worked, where they would play ball without getting tired for a moment all morning. “While his mother was in line to buy, he spent the time kicking the ball against the opposite wall,” remembers Rafa Rodríguez, former president of La Torretapresent almost every morning at the establishment.
Problems would soon come for the young boy’s family. His employment situation and the difficulties of the neighborhood plunged a family into monetary collapse that was unable to pay their son’s fees., the most outstanding player of all his age at the moment. But the club that gave Lamine the opportunity to display his game for the first time He understood the situation and made all the facilities so that the boy could continue playing football.
Image by: Francesc Melcion
In 2014, the La Torreta Football Club would prepare a report with Can Barça management to show them the natural talent that their very young player possessed. “It was a matter of a couple or three weeks. They came to see us and explained to us that they wanted to sign him. They were clear about it,” Rafa Rodríguez explained for ARA newspaper. Lamine Yamal He immediately entered into a dynamic with the youngest of FC Barcelona, and the rest is history.
An unstoppable phenomenon in the lower ranks of the Blaugrana team
Laminate during a match | Photo: FC Barcelona
Lamine Yamal He would dazzle everyone with his arrival to the culé team. His self-confidence, maturity, calm and perfect reading of games would catapult him to the first team at just 15 years old. Not even the ‘B’ showed up. Xavi Hernandez made the young youth squad debut on April 29, 2023, with only 15 years, 9 months and 16 days, against Real Betis at the Camp Nou.
The moment to dazzle the Blaugrana fan came in this summer’s 2023 edition of the traditional Joan Gamper Trophy against a European colossus like Tottenham. As Lionel Messi did against Juventus in 2005, Lamine Yamal headlined newspaper covers and delighted the public with an unusual performance for a boy who had just turned 16 years old. It changed the game completely. Barça would reap the victory and become champions of their own trophy, after overcoming the English club.
Now, with the start of LaLiga and Raphinha’s two-game suspension, Lamine Yamal The time has come for him to be the most decisive player of a club in need of troops on the wing and with important departures such as Ousmane Dembélé or Ansu Fati. And boy did he deliver. The Blaugrana pearl has been a starter in the last two games for FC Barcelona, and was named MVP of the match during the Blaugrana club’s visit to La Cerámica to face Villarrealin a match in which it was totally unbalanced and decisive for the hard-fought culé victory.
Photography by: @jorgepalma.15
Luis De La Fuente fulfilled the omens that the press had already warned of weeks before giving his squad list for the EURO 2024 qualifying matches against Georgia and Cyprus: Lamine Yamal would be part of those called up in the senior team. He had minutes against the Georgian team and contributed to Spain’s overwhelming 1-7 victory with a goal, facts that would make him the debutant and the youngest scorer in the history of the Spanish National Team. A dream debut that engraves it in the history books of a centenary selection.
“If De La Fuente doesn’t call him, we will do it, no problem“concluded the under-21 coach, Santi Denia, at the press conference prior to his boys’ game against Scotland in Jaén. A footballer who was decisive in the U-17 European Championship this year, and who has directly crowned a dream debut in the senior team, witnessing clear, powerful and heavy credentials to be the starting winger of the Spanish team for a long time.
Of humble and modest origins, Lamine Yamal has a bright future ahead of it that is within the reach of very few. Today the footballer is experiencing dream moments that only he can extend with his boots on the field of play. A career that leaves colors of being able to become fruitful and colossal, with a protagonist full of illusions and supernatural talent.
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