18 hours Ago By Albert Nadal
The advertising panels at the Madrid - Puerta de Atocha Almudena Grandes train station regularly feature an advertisement for the sportswear brand that Lamine Yamal wears and also outfits the Spanish national football team. He is the protagonist of the advertisement. The young Barça star provokes contradictions among the staunch fans of the Spanish national football team, who are passionate about their football and at the same time maintain a rivalry with Barça that, in Madrid, often transcends merely sporting matters to fester into political, cultural, and identity issues.
He is the best footballer in the , appears on billboards in Madrid, but for many, he's not one of their own: he's from Barça, he's from La Masia, he's Catalan. Under the management of Luis de la Fuente, no footballer from the national team has been more decisive. Lamine Yamal has scored four goals and provided eight assists at just 17 years old.
While his teammates play in lower categories, such as the U-19s (which would be his age) or the U-21s, he sits among the best. He's earned it. This Wednesday, the goal that put Barça through to a Copa del Rey final four years later was scored by Ferran Torres, but the pass was provided by the winger from Rocafonda.
With his goal against France in the semifinals of the last European Championship, he finally became known to the world of football. In Barcelona and in La Liga, this prodigy had been talked about for some time. Masía had done it again.
Barça had done it again. A goal, by the way, that until the Champions League quarterfinals against Benfica was the player's favorite. But the impossible arc he scored against the Portuguese, Comparing him to Leo Messi is a tall order.
The Argentine routinely converted exceptional performances. Lamine Yamal, who burst onto the scene long before the Rosario star, also makes exhibitions a piece of cake, an easy task: it doesn't matter what stadium or opponent he's facing. Like a painter, the young star turned the Metropolitano turf into his canvas.
It took him just one minute and thirty seconds to give the first cassock to Giuliano Simeone, a warrior whose father and coach, Diego Pablo Simeone, switched flanks to assist Reinlido Mandava. The midfielder and full-back were two broken toys compared to the Barça star's performance during the first thirty minutes of play. Lamine Yamal actively participated in all of Barça's attacking chances in the first half, when Hansi Flick's players shone the most.
From the cassock to Simeone at the very start, reminiscent of a legendary Riquelme shot on Mario Yepes during a Boca Juniors-River Plate match 25 years ago, he made a touch that was both a dribble and a whiplash that almost scored. Lamine Yamal is, by far, the footballer who dribbles the most. In the Copa del Rey, he has 16 in four matches.
But if you look at the bigger picture, the Barça winger, with 113 successful dribbles completed in La Liga, is the player in the continent's top five leagues who has made the most. He's followed by Manchester City's Jérémy Doku with 88. In the Champions League, he's racked up 33 in nine matches.
Dribbling, like scoring, is the most prized and hardest-to-find skill in football. During his near-perfect half-hour—all he needed was a goal—for a Metropolitano side that went silent with panic whenever the 17-year-old genius had the ball, Lamine Yamal also set up Ferran with an impeccable through ball for the Valencian to score the only and decisive goal of the match. With 13 goals and 19 assists in 41 matches, the player from Rocafonda is also the youngest player to have been involved in 10 or more goals in Europe's top five leagues.
Before halftime, he still had time to provide another assist for Raphinha, who shot hard, but wide, and Juan Muso was able to deflect it. His performance, like that of the entire team, dipped in the second half, but his display was already served. "I tell him to keep doing what he's doing, to keep having fun.
Although sometimes you have to pull his ears a little," joked Pedri, Barça's best player with permission from Lamine Yamal, about his teammate's performance. The Canary Islander was referring to his defensive assists. It's also a request Hansi Flick has made to him.
This, and being more careful in some celebrations, are the few warning signs from a player who still has the sins of youth, but is destined to mark an era..
