Lamine Yamal, the child prodigy of Barça that Spain punished

2023-04-26 01:24:53

“He has personality, talent, the last pass, one-on-one, he’s strong, he’s self-confident and he’s had wonderful training sessions… he can mark an important stage for the club.” Xavi Hernández’s warning to Lamine Yamal (Esplugues de Llobregat, 2007) is forceful after an act of indiscipline when he was concentrating with the Spanish under-17 team led by Julen Guerrero in the Algarve together with a player from Real Madrid and another from Atlético from Madrid. The future of the child prodigy of Barcelona depends only on him. The son of a Moroccan father and a mother from Equatorial Guinea, he studies 3rd ESO and is one of those footballers pointed out by all after dazzling in the lower ranks of the Barça team, something that has earned him the first team award with the Tarrasa coach, without even even need to go through the subsidiary. Never has such a young player been summoned by the Barça professional team.

The door of the elite is closer than when Ansu Fati or Bojan Krkić broke it down at the age of 16 and Mario Rosas, Gavi, Balde, Pedri, Deulofeu, Adama Traore, Deulofeu, Oriol Riera, Nano, Muniesa or Lionel Messi did it with 17. He is the player of the future for Barcelona and at the age of 15, still a cadet, plays in the Juvenil, his debut is closer than ever. He is sure that if it were Xavi he would have already played a few minutes, but there seem to be many factors surrounding the player’s possible first match in the First Division.

There is no footballer at La Masia, where he arrived at the age of seven, who arouses more interest than the boy with African surnames. The fan likes to see new faces and get excited about the young talents coming out of the quarry, although such a rush is not always synonymous with success. There are many players from the Barcelona youth academy who grow up with the label of future stars. A position of pressure that is difficult to live with.

There are not a few who had to take a detour to make a place for themselves in the world of football instead of following the path that everyone had set for them: succeeding at Barcelona. Xavi insists that Lamine Yamal is not just another young man, but that “he is different”, he would not know who to liken him to because he “has things from various footballers”. In the words of the Barca coach, he has the characteristics of footballers “of the new generations, who act with tremendous unconsciousness, great self-confidence, tremendous impudence.” Lamine’s videos are circulating online and praise is pouring in for the overflow and daring that now seems to be in danger of extinction in modern football. The player, who has the well-known Jorge Mendes as his representative, stands out for his dribbling and technical conditions typical of the classic daring street player, with game vision and determination. He can play in any of the three attacking positions and is waiting to sign his first professional contract this summer.

An Argentine, the earliest in Primera

In case of having a few minutes against Rayo in Vallecas, Lamine will be the youngest Barcelona footballer to debut in LaLiga, but he would not occupy the first place among all the players in the history of the competition. The ranking is led by Luka Romero, who made his Mallorca debut in a duel against Real Madrid three seasons ago, at the age of 15 years and 219 days. Now this Argentine soccer player is condemned to ostracism at Lazio, a team for which he signed in the summer of 2021. The attacker surpassed the record held by a Celta player named Bao Rodríguez, alias ‘Samsón’, who in the 1939-40 season premiered at 15 years and 255 days.

In the big leagues of Europe, Wisdom Amey made history in the Italian Serie A at the end of the 2020/21 season. The right-back became the youngest player to debut in the competition at 15 years and 274 days. In France, Kalman Gerencseri remains the youngest player to enter the field. He made his Lens debut against Monaco in August 1960, when he was 15 years and 225 days old. In Germany, Youssoufa Moukoko holds the record for being the youngest to debut in the Bundesliga. The forward made his first appearance at the age of 16 and one day, in Dortmund’s 5-2 win over Hertha Berlin in November 2020, when he replaced none other than Erling Haaland.