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Casting a spell (Lamine Yamal)
How can a 16-year-old make such an impact so quickly? European football hasn’t seen anything like the emergence of Lamine Yamal since Lionel Messi burst onto the scene 20 years ago. But don’t go making comparisons. This kid is not standing in anyone’s shadow, as Graham Hunter discovered when he met up with him at Barcelona’s Sant Joan Despí training centre for Champions Journal
PHOTOGRAPHY Alex Caparros | WORDS
Interview
The first rule of Lamine Yamal club is that you do not talk about Leo Messi. At least not to compare the young tyro with the greatest player who ever lived. Forgive me for adapting the infamous tagline from the Brad Pitt/Ed Norton movie Fight Club, but you’ll understand why. There are, undeniably, things which link the Spaniard and the Argentinian: each possesses a divine left foot, and they share the heritage of that FC Barcelona badge plus the common bond of having grown up around La Masia, the club’s world-renowned hothouse for young talent.
Both were precocious Barça debutants: Messi at 16, albeit in a friendly, Lamine at 15. Their initial fame was born from drifting in off the right wing then being capable of doing sublime, anarchic things with their left foot. And, I think, there’s another important link: each of them is blessed with privileged vision plus an understanding of what to do and when to do it.
Unlike many prodigious technical talents, neither of them – Messi back in the day, Lamine now – believes that technique is an end in itself. Neither feels that wowing the stands and basking in the adrenaline-tsunami of individual praise has anything to do with why they were given gifts. They play for the team. They crave the feeling of winning.
But that’s it. This is when the first rule of Lamine Yamal club kicks in. Hard. While detailing the factors which link the two is fine, comparisons, predictions and knee-jerk hype are odious. Unnecessary. Potentially damaging.
Barcelona’s current prodigy – because that’s what he is and you’d better make no mistake about it – really does not need a single further comparison with the most complete footballer who ever lived. How Lamine evolves as a man, as a footballer, is down to him and requires absolutely zero tramlines set by the tracks Messi left behind. No comparative hype or empty messianic hyperbole. He’s still a kid. Ask Lamine to reveal his worst habit and he’ll say, “Eating sweeties.”
Ask what people know least about him and he’ll answer, “I like to do the things children my age do and people think that I do the things grown-ups do.”
Wait, though. Hold on, there’s one more pair of links, and I’d better spit them out soon or Brad Pitt will be after me. Push the 16-year-old on what he hates most and he’ll tell you “losing”, almost as if quoting Barcelona’s greatest No10.
And what’s your greatest asset?
Lamine: “My biggest strength on the pitch is thinking before making decisions.”
Here, again, this is one of the things which has always elevated Messi above not just the crowd but the rest of the elite as well. And if you wrap up the quick-fire questions with “First idol?” then, of course, Lamine’s answer is: “Leo Messi!”
What links them is fascinating, but anyone tempted to utter the phrase “the next Messi” should be barred from talking about Lamine for a season. Maybe six.
How do I know all these little factlets about Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana? Thanks to spending a morning with him before Barcelona played Champions League football in Naples. And discovering that he’s confident, articulate and fun, albeit much more slender and diminutive than he appears on the pitch.
Time: just after breakfast at Barça’s Sant Joan Despí training complex.
Location: in the cavernous media hall where press conferences are held.
Set-up: well, let me explain.
Although this is a first meeting with Lamine, we’ve filmed in this functional space dozens of times before – interviewing a lineage of players from Andrés Iniesta and Luis Suárez to Ronald Araújo. And now this visionary winger.
To find a new shot, to make it look fresh, we’ve got Lamine perched on one of the desks, neatly framed with the Barça motto Més que un club over his left shoulder.
One final mention of that LM guy. I first interviewed Messi back in 2006. He had just turned 19 and I can assure you that he was much more timid and looked younger than Lamine does here. And, for sure, Leo was having way less fun.
Up close, it seems incredible that this fella dodges challenges from seasoned La Liga pros, that he withstands attempts to bully him. That his size, never mind his age, allows him not only to feature but to star. Turns out he’s been tough from the get-go.
I ask him about his origin story with a football and he’s off, exuding both verve and enjoyment.
“I remember hanging out with my friends after school. I was three or four years old and, just in front of my house, there was Rocafonda Park, where I watched my father and older cousin play football.
“I always tried to be with them, which was the first time I saw a football and really fell in love with it. They would put me in goal when I was a little kid. Sometimes they’d kick the ball at my face, but I didn’t mind – it didn’t hurt. Still, it was very difficult because the ball was very big and I was small. But that’s it. That’s how I started.
“In those days, I always thought, ‘As soon as someone else joins in, I’m going to change things so that he’ll be put in goal.’ When I graduated to playing with my pals, the game – as we called it – was Winner Stays On. Two teams against each other and the first to score two goals wins. Another team comes on as the losers go off.
“I remember when summer came it was really hot, the soil was very dry and hard, so I used to come back home with cuts and my grandmother would ask where I’d been.
“Right from the start, the ball has been my friend. Every time i set foot outside it was to play”
Barcelona revel in their victory
One of the club’s officials, Juan Manuel Gascón, alerted Barça’s youth academy scouts (they’re called ‘scouters’ in Catalonia) and, based on such glowing testimony, this tiny seven-year-old was hauled in to show his stuff.
The Rocafonda Park experience repeated itself and he was ordered into a random position, not played where he wanted to be. Told by Blaugrana coaches that he was a full-back for the day, Lamine simply let seven-year-old instinct take over. After just one performance, and a stunning hat-trick from left-back, Barcelona were immediately falling over themselves to recruit him.
“My mum had known for months about Barça’s interest but she only told me the very week I had to go and train with them. I took it in and, luckily, I wasn’t too nervous. Which is probably because I was so very happy.
“It’s true that on the first day I was played at full-back, but I scored three goals. I reckon it was because I felt free and I really wanted to join Barcelona.
“When I got home, my mum asked me, ‘How did it go?’ I said, ‘Pretty good.’ But when I went to bed, I kept smiling for an hour. I was so happy.”
In very short order, he was an international trophy winner. He’s making some of us feel so old right now, but the high spot of his time in Barcelona’s youth ranks came in the exact neighbourhood where the man who famously sang You Make Me Feel So Young (Frank Sinatra) was born and raised.
Hoboken, New Jersey, was host to the 2019 La Liga Futures event for promising U12 players at Sinatra Park Soccer Field, looking right across the Hudson at the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden.
Barcelona, Valencia, Guadalajara, Atlético de Madrid, Villarreal, Benfica, Real Betis, Club América, Sevilla, Espanyol, Inter, Liverpool, New York City FC, Real Madrid, Hoboken City FC and Guangzhou R&F all participated.
Lamine and Co won every match, aside from a 2-2 draw with Valencia, beating Atlético 4-0 in the semi-finals then Real Madrid 6-1 in the final. He was tournament top scorer and best player. “When you are little, you don’t think, ‘I’m in the United States!’ You only think, ‘I’ve got a game against Real Madrid. I want to win. I want to play.’ You only think about that.”
That last phrase helps us vault forward. It’s partly for his mentality and attitude that Xavi Hernández promoted even such a highly skilled and thrilling youngster. Barring injury, Lamine will have played 50 times, including a couple of full-blown Clásicos, for Barcelona’s first team before he turns 17. That’s pretty remarkable. And you don’t achieve that on ability alone.
He’s become the youngest Barcelona debutant, starter and scorer – plus the Spanish national team’s youngest debutant and scorer – thanks to the fact that, when he was still 15, Xavi once again decided that “talent and attitude are more important than physical size or birthdate”.
“Xavi told me to enjoy it, to do what i do in training. that’s special: it takes away the fear”
“Many coaches have shown confidence in me,” says Lamine. “But it’s not the same if they demonstrate confidence in you aged 12 years old compared to giving you your first-team debut aged 15 at the Camp Nou in front of 88,000 people. I’ll always be grateful. Not every coach would have made me debut at that age.
“When I was coming on, Xavi told me to enjoy it, to do what I always did in training. That’s special because it takes away the fear. It makes you not think about anything apart from playing well.
“I only played a few minutes [11 in total], but by the end of the match my legs felt as if it had been an hour. I was exhausted but, in my head, it felt like it had all passed by in a minute. When I was in the car park, my mother was there and everyone was thrilled, but the following day, it was back to training again. So, it didn’t last long. It was just a happy day for the family and a lot of congratulations.”
Things have moved quickly. At the time of writing, his season has already yielded seven assists, five goals and Lamine has become the youngest player ever to start in a Champions League knockout match, against Napoli in the round of 16.
He is aware of the speedy trajectory. “When I made my debut, I wasn’t such an important player in the dressing room – I was more of a kid. It’s true that my team-mates now trust me more, and I think people take me more seriously. But the dynamic is the same as ever. It’s a relationship based on respect.”
Torreta taught him the very basics of dressing-room life. This is a more testing environment.
“There is a good vibe and, yes, we are always playing jokes on each other. You need to know when you can and when you can’t show a sense of humour, but I do enjoy jokes. I enjoy them at my expense and I like to get my own back!”
Records and stats are one thing, demonstrations of his quality are another. There will be plenty of goals to come, and he’s definitely got the prospect of moving more centrally as he matures. But Lamine’s vision of when, and how, to deliver a slide-rule assist was shown beautifully in Antwerp during the Champions League group stage, when he set up Ferran Torres, a striker to whom he subsequently gave the goal-pass of the season away at Real Betis. Works of art both. I ask him about them and how he evaluates the differences between La Liga and European football.
“I think there are games in La Liga where you can relax a bit more, get a feel for how the game is going. In the Champions League, it’s all intensity from the first minute, and any team can beat you. I have less time to think, but as I head into Champions League games even more motivated, I’m able to play my game.
“Providing assists gives you more joy, as you’ve helped the team and your team-mates. However, when you score a goal, it’s more satisfying, it’s a big release. It feels out-of-body. I can’t put it into words.”
Nor is it easy putting Lamine Yamal into words. Startling would be one. Sheer fun would be two more. If you’ve not been watching him, then it’s time you were. The months are whizzing by remorselessly. He’ll be 17 soon. Catch him while you can. He and football were invented for one another.
Both were precocious Barça debutants: Messi at 16, albeit in a friendly, Lamine at 15. Their initial fame was born from drifting in off the right wing then being capable of doing sublime, anarchic things with their left foot. And, I think, there’s another important link: each of them is blessed with privileged vision plus an understanding of what to do and when to do it.
Unlike many prodigious technical talents, neither of them – Messi back in the day, Lamine now – believes that technique is an end in itself. Neither feels that wowing the stands and basking in the adrenaline-tsunami of individual praise has anything to do with why they were given gifts. They play for the team. They crave the feeling of winning.
But that’s it. This is when the first rule of Lamine Yamal club kicks in. Hard. While detailing the factors which link the two is fine, comparisons, predictions and knee-jerk hype are odious. Unnecessary. Potentially damaging.
Barcelona’s current prodigy – because that’s what he is and you’d better make no mistake about it – really does not need a single further comparison with the most complete footballer who ever lived. How Lamine evolves as a man, as a footballer, is down to him and requires absolutely zero tramlines set by the tracks Messi left behind. No comparative hype or empty messianic hyperbole. He’s still a kid. Ask Lamine to reveal his worst habit and he’ll say, “Eating sweeties.”
Ask what people know least about him and he’ll answer, “I like to do the things children my age do and people think that I do the things grown-ups do.”
Wait, though. Hold on, there’s one more pair of links, and I’d better spit them out soon or Brad Pitt will be after me. Push the 16-year-old on what he hates most and he’ll tell you “losing”, almost as if quoting Barcelona’s greatest No10.
And what’s your greatest asset?
Lamine: “My biggest strength on the pitch is thinking before making decisions.”
Here, again, this is one of the things which has always elevated Messi above not just the crowd but the rest of the elite as well. And if you wrap up the quick-fire questions with “First idol?” then, of course, Lamine’s answer is: “Leo Messi!”
What links them is fascinating, but anyone tempted to utter the phrase “the next Messi” should be barred from talking about Lamine for a season. Maybe six.
How do I know all these little factlets about Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana? Thanks to spending a morning with him before Barcelona played Champions League football in Naples. And discovering that he’s confident, articulate and fun, albeit much more slender and diminutive than he appears on the pitch.
Time: just after breakfast at Barça’s Sant Joan Despí training complex.
Location: in the cavernous media hall where press conferences are held.
Set-up: well, let me explain.
Although this is a first meeting with Lamine, we’ve filmed in this functional space dozens of times before – interviewing a lineage of players from Andrés Iniesta and Luis Suárez to Ronald Araújo. And now this visionary winger.
To find a new shot, to make it look fresh, we’ve got Lamine perched on one of the desks, neatly framed with the Barça motto Més que un club over his left shoulder.
One final mention of that LM guy. I first interviewed Messi back in 2006. He had just turned 19 and I can assure you that he was much more timid and looked younger than Lamine does here. And, for sure, Leo was having way less fun.
Up close, it seems incredible that this fella dodges challenges from seasoned La Liga pros, that he withstands attempts to bully him. That his size, never mind his age, allows him not only to feature but to star. Turns out he’s been tough from the get-go.
I ask him about his origin story with a football and he’s off, exuding both verve and enjoyment.
“I remember hanging out with my friends after school. I was three or four years old and, just in front of my house, there was Rocafonda Park, where I watched my father and older cousin play football.
“I always tried to be with them, which was the first time I saw a football and really fell in love with it. They would put me in goal when I was a little kid. Sometimes they’d kick the ball at my face, but I didn’t mind – it didn’t hurt. Still, it was very difficult because the ball was very big and I was small. But that’s it. That’s how I started.
“In those days, I always thought, ‘As soon as someone else joins in, I’m going to change things so that he’ll be put in goal.’ When I graduated to playing with my pals, the game – as we called it – was Winner Stays On. Two teams against each other and the first to score two goals wins. Another team comes on as the losers go off.
“I remember when summer came it was really hot, the soil was very dry and hard, so I used to come back home with cuts and my grandmother would ask where I’d been.
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“Right from the start, the ball has been my friend. Every time i set foot outside it was to play”
Barcelona revel in their victory
One of the club’s officials, Juan Manuel Gascón, alerted Barça’s youth academy scouts (they’re called ‘scouters’ in Catalonia) and, based on such glowing testimony, this tiny seven-year-old was hauled in to show his stuff.
The Rocafonda Park experience repeated itself and he was ordered into a random position, not played where he wanted to be. Told by Blaugrana coaches that he was a full-back for the day, Lamine simply let seven-year-old instinct take over. After just one performance, and a stunning hat-trick from left-back, Barcelona were immediately falling over themselves to recruit him.
“My mum had known for months about Barça’s interest but she only told me the very week I had to go and train with them. I took it in and, luckily, I wasn’t too nervous. Which is probably because I was so very happy.
“It’s true that on the first day I was played at full-back, but I scored three goals. I reckon it was because I felt free and I really wanted to join Barcelona.
“When I got home, my mum asked me, ‘How did it go?’ I said, ‘Pretty good.’ But when I went to bed, I kept smiling for an hour. I was so happy.”
In very short order, he was an international trophy winner. He’s making some of us feel so old right now, but the high spot of his time in Barcelona’s youth ranks came in the exact neighbourhood where the man who famously sang You Make Me Feel So Young (Frank Sinatra) was born and raised.
Hoboken, New Jersey, was host to the 2019 La Liga Futures event for promising U12 players at Sinatra Park Soccer Field, looking right across the Hudson at the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden.
Barcelona, Valencia, Guadalajara, Atlético de Madrid, Villarreal, Benfica, Real Betis, Club América, Sevilla, Espanyol, Inter, Liverpool, New York City FC, Real Madrid, Hoboken City FC and Guangzhou R&F all participated.
Lamine and Co won every match, aside from a 2-2 draw with Valencia, beating Atlético 4-0 in the semi-finals then Real Madrid 6-1 in the final. He was tournament top scorer and best player. “When you are little, you don’t think, ‘I’m in the United States!’ You only think, ‘I’ve got a game against Real Madrid. I want to win. I want to play.’ You only think about that.”
That last phrase helps us vault forward. It’s partly for his mentality and attitude that Xavi Hernández promoted even such a highly skilled and thrilling youngster. Barring injury, Lamine will have played 50 times, including a couple of full-blown Clásicos, for Barcelona’s first team before he turns 17. That’s pretty remarkable. And you don’t achieve that on ability alone.
He’s become the youngest Barcelona debutant, starter and scorer – plus the Spanish national team’s youngest debutant and scorer – thanks to the fact that, when he was still 15, Xavi once again decided that “talent and attitude are more important than physical size or birthdate”.
“Xavi told me to enjoy it, to do what i do in training. that’s special: it takes away the fear”
“Many coaches have shown confidence in me,” says Lamine. “But it’s not the same if they demonstrate confidence in you aged 12 years old compared to giving you your first-team debut aged 15 at the Camp Nou in front of 88,000 people. I’ll always be grateful. Not every coach would have made me debut at that age.
“When I was coming on, Xavi told me to enjoy it, to do what I always did in training. That’s special because it takes away the fear. It makes you not think about anything apart from playing well.
“I only played a few minutes [11 in total], but by the end of the match my legs felt as if it had been an hour. I was exhausted but, in my head, it felt like it had all passed by in a minute. When I was in the car park, my mother was there and everyone was thrilled, but the following day, it was back to training again. So, it didn’t last long. It was just a happy day for the family and a lot of congratulations.”
Things have moved quickly. At the time of writing, his season has already yielded seven assists, five goals and Lamine has become the youngest player ever to start in a Champions League knockout match, against Napoli in the round of 16.
He is aware of the speedy trajectory. “When I made my debut, I wasn’t such an important player in the dressing room – I was more of a kid. It’s true that my team-mates now trust me more, and I think people take me more seriously. But the dynamic is the same as ever. It’s a relationship based on respect.”
Torreta taught him the very basics of dressing-room life. This is a more testing environment.
“There is a good vibe and, yes, we are always playing jokes on each other. You need to know when you can and when you can’t show a sense of humour, but I do enjoy jokes. I enjoy them at my expense and I like to get my own back!”
Records and stats are one thing, demonstrations of his quality are another. There will be plenty of goals to come, and he’s definitely got the prospect of moving more centrally as he matures. But Lamine’s vision of when, and how, to deliver a slide-rule assist was shown beautifully in Antwerp during the Champions League group stage, when he set up Ferran Torres, a striker to whom he subsequently gave the goal-pass of the season away at Real Betis. Works of art both. I ask him about them and how he evaluates the differences between La Liga and European football.
“I think there are games in La Liga where you can relax a bit more, get a feel for how the game is going. In the Champions League, it’s all intensity from the first minute, and any team can beat you. I have less time to think, but as I head into Champions League games even more motivated, I’m able to play my game.
“Providing assists gives you more joy, as you’ve helped the team and your team-mates. However, when you score a goal, it’s more satisfying, it’s a big release. It feels out-of-body. I can’t put it into words.”
Nor is it easy putting Lamine Yamal into words. Startling would be one. Sheer fun would be two more. If you’ve not been watching him, then it’s time you were. The months are whizzing by remorselessly. He’ll be 17 soon. Catch him while you can. He and football were invented for one another.
Both were precocious Barça debutants: Messi at 16, albeit in a friendly, Lamine at 15. Their initial fame was born from drifting in off the right wing then being capable of doing sublime, anarchic things with their left foot. And, I think, there’s another important link: each of them is blessed with privileged vision plus an understanding of what to do and when to do it.
Unlike many prodigious technical talents, neither of them – Messi back in the day, Lamine now – believes that technique is an end in itself. Neither feels that wowing the stands and basking in the adrenaline-tsunami of individual praise has anything to do with why they were given gifts. They play for the team. They crave the feeling of winning.
But that’s it. This is when the first rule of Lamine Yamal club kicks in. Hard. While detailing the factors which link the two is fine, comparisons, predictions and knee-jerk hype are odious. Unnecessary. Potentially damaging.
Barcelona’s current prodigy – because that’s what he is and you’d better make no mistake about it – really does not need a single further comparison with the most complete footballer who ever lived. How Lamine evolves as a man, as a footballer, is down to him and requires absolutely zero tramlines set by the tracks Messi left behind. No comparative hype or empty messianic hyperbole. He’s still a kid. Ask Lamine to reveal his worst habit and he’ll say, “Eating sweeties.”
Ask what people know least about him and he’ll answer, “I like to do the things children my age do and people think that I do the things grown-ups do.”
Wait, though. Hold on, there’s one more pair of links, and I’d better spit them out soon or Brad Pitt will be after me. Push the 16-year-old on what he hates most and he’ll tell you “losing”, almost as if quoting Barcelona’s greatest No10.
And what’s your greatest asset?
Lamine: “My biggest strength on the pitch is thinking before making decisions.”
Here, again, this is one of the things which has always elevated Messi above not just the crowd but the rest of the elite as well. And if you wrap up the quick-fire questions with “First idol?” then, of course, Lamine’s answer is: “Leo Messi!”
What links them is fascinating, but anyone tempted to utter the phrase “the next Messi” should be barred from talking about Lamine for a season. Maybe six.
How do I know all these little factlets about Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana? Thanks to spending a morning with him before Barcelona played Champions League football in Naples. And discovering that he’s confident, articulate and fun, albeit much more slender and diminutive than he appears on the pitch.
Time: just after breakfast at Barça’s Sant Joan Despí training complex.
Location: in the cavernous media hall where press conferences are held.
Set-up: well, let me explain.
Although this is a first meeting with Lamine, we’ve filmed in this functional space dozens of times before – interviewing a lineage of players from Andrés Iniesta and Luis Suárez to Ronald Araújo. And now this visionary winger.
To find a new shot, to make it look fresh, we’ve got Lamine perched on one of the desks, neatly framed with the Barça motto Més que un club over his left shoulder.
One final mention of that LM guy. I first interviewed Messi back in 2006. He had just turned 19 and I can assure you that he was much more timid and looked younger than Lamine does here. And, for sure, Leo was having way less fun.
Up close, it seems incredible that this fella dodges challenges from seasoned La Liga pros, that he withstands attempts to bully him. That his size, never mind his age, allows him not only to feature but to star. Turns out he’s been tough from the get-go.
I ask him about his origin story with a football and he’s off, exuding both verve and enjoyment.
“I remember hanging out with my friends after school. I was three or four years old and, just in front of my house, there was Rocafonda Park, where I watched my father and older cousin play football.
“I always tried to be with them, which was the first time I saw a football and really fell in love with it. They would put me in goal when I was a little kid. Sometimes they’d kick the ball at my face, but I didn’t mind – it didn’t hurt. Still, it was very difficult because the ball was very big and I was small. But that’s it. That’s how I started.
“In those days, I always thought, ‘As soon as someone else joins in, I’m going to change things so that he’ll be put in goal.’ When I graduated to playing with my pals, the game – as we called it – was Winner Stays On. Two teams against each other and the first to score two goals wins. Another team comes on as the losers go off.
“I remember when summer came it was really hot, the soil was very dry and hard, so I used to come back home with cuts and my grandmother would ask where I’d been.
“Right from the start, the ball has been my friend. Every time i set foot outside it was to play”
Barcelona revel in their victory
One of the club’s officials, Juan Manuel Gascón, alerted Barça’s youth academy scouts (they’re called ‘scouters’ in Catalonia) and, based on such glowing testimony, this tiny seven-year-old was hauled in to show his stuff.
The Rocafonda Park experience repeated itself and he was ordered into a random position, not played where he wanted to be. Told by Blaugrana coaches that he was a full-back for the day, Lamine simply let seven-year-old instinct take over. After just one performance, and a stunning hat-trick from left-back, Barcelona were immediately falling over themselves to recruit him.
“My mum had known for months about Barça’s interest but she only told me the very week I had to go and train with them. I took it in and, luckily, I wasn’t too nervous. Which is probably because I was so very happy.
“It’s true that on the first day I was played at full-back, but I scored three goals. I reckon it was because I felt free and I really wanted to join Barcelona.
“When I got home, my mum asked me, ‘How did it go?’ I said, ‘Pretty good.’ But when I went to bed, I kept smiling for an hour. I was so happy.”
In very short order, he was an international trophy winner. He’s making some of us feel so old right now, but the high spot of his time in Barcelona’s youth ranks came in the exact neighbourhood where the man who famously sang You Make Me Feel So Young (Frank Sinatra) was born and raised.
Hoboken, New Jersey, was host to the 2019 La Liga Futures event for promising U12 players at Sinatra Park Soccer Field, looking right across the Hudson at the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden.
Barcelona, Valencia, Guadalajara, Atlético de Madrid, Villarreal, Benfica, Real Betis, Club América, Sevilla, Espanyol, Inter, Liverpool, New York City FC, Real Madrid, Hoboken City FC and Guangzhou R&F all participated.
Lamine and Co won every match, aside from a 2-2 draw with Valencia, beating Atlético 4-0 in the semi-finals then Real Madrid 6-1 in the final. He was tournament top scorer and best player. “When you are little, you don’t think, ‘I’m in the United States!’ You only think, ‘I’ve got a game against Real Madrid. I want to win. I want to play.’ You only think about that.”
That last phrase helps us vault forward. It’s partly for his mentality and attitude that Xavi Hernández promoted even such a highly skilled and thrilling youngster. Barring injury, Lamine will have played 50 times, including a couple of full-blown Clásicos, for Barcelona’s first team before he turns 17. That’s pretty remarkable. And you don’t achieve that on ability alone.
He’s become the youngest Barcelona debutant, starter and scorer – plus the Spanish national team’s youngest debutant and scorer – thanks to the fact that, when he was still 15, Xavi once again decided that “talent and attitude are more important than physical size or birthdate”.
“Xavi told me to enjoy it, to do what i do in training. that’s special: it takes away the fear”
“Many coaches have shown confidence in me,” says Lamine. “But it’s not the same if they demonstrate confidence in you aged 12 years old compared to giving you your first-team debut aged 15 at the Camp Nou in front of 88,000 people. I’ll always be grateful. Not every coach would have made me debut at that age.
“When I was coming on, Xavi told me to enjoy it, to do what I always did in training. That’s special because it takes away the fear. It makes you not think about anything apart from playing well.
“I only played a few minutes [11 in total], but by the end of the match my legs felt as if it had been an hour. I was exhausted but, in my head, it felt like it had all passed by in a minute. When I was in the car park, my mother was there and everyone was thrilled, but the following day, it was back to training again. So, it didn’t last long. It was just a happy day for the family and a lot of congratulations.”
Things have moved quickly. At the time of writing, his season has already yielded seven assists, five goals and Lamine has become the youngest player ever to start in a Champions League knockout match, against Napoli in the round of 16.
He is aware of the speedy trajectory. “When I made my debut, I wasn’t such an important player in the dressing room – I was more of a kid. It’s true that my team-mates now trust me more, and I think people take me more seriously. But the dynamic is the same as ever. It’s a relationship based on respect.”
Torreta taught him the very basics of dressing-room life. This is a more testing environment.
“There is a good vibe and, yes, we are always playing jokes on each other. You need to know when you can and when you can’t show a sense of humour, but I do enjoy jokes. I enjoy them at my expense and I like to get my own back!”
Records and stats are one thing, demonstrations of his quality are another. There will be plenty of goals to come, and he’s definitely got the prospect of moving more centrally as he matures. But Lamine’s vision of when, and how, to deliver a slide-rule assist was shown beautifully in Antwerp during the Champions League group stage, when he set up Ferran Torres, a striker to whom he subsequently gave the goal-pass of the season away at Real Betis. Works of art both. I ask him about them and how he evaluates the differences between La Liga and European football.
“I think there are games in La Liga where you can relax a bit more, get a feel for how the game is going. In the Champions League, it’s all intensity from the first minute, and any team can beat you. I have less time to think, but as I head into Champions League games even more motivated, I’m able to play my game.
“Providing assists gives you more joy, as you’ve helped the team and your team-mates. However, when you score a goal, it’s more satisfying, it’s a big release. It feels out-of-body. I can’t put it into words.”
Nor is it easy putting Lamine Yamal into words. Startling would be one. Sheer fun would be two more. If you’ve not been watching him, then it’s time you were. The months are whizzing by remorselessly. He’ll be 17 soon. Catch him while you can. He and football were invented for one another.
