Lamine Yamal: The star of FC Barcelona divides the world of football

“People sometimes forget that Lamine is only 17 years old.” The sentence was pronounced in high places at Camp Nou. It was just before the shock against theInter Milan (3-3 at the round trip Tuesday at 9 p.m.), the first semi-final of the Champions League of Barcelona for six years, the first since the departure of Lionel Messi.

The first with his heir: Lamine Yamal spoke at a press conference at the Ciudad Deportiva Joan Gamper. He appeared serene. Maybe too much. Enough to elegantly respond to the allegations that bring him back to King Leo constantly.

Compared to the legend of FC Barcelona

“Messi at your age had only played seven games with professionals”, “How do you manage the comparison with Leo?”, “Messi never scored against Inter”. To which he replied: “I do not compare myself to anyone, even less to Leo. So I let you debate it, because between us, we just think of improving each day, being better than the day before. So I think this comparison does not make sense, even less with Messi. ”

The Barça Sends Lamine Yamal to speak to the media. The 17 -year -old prodigy accepts without hesitation. Apart from the comparison with the Outhape Ballon d’Or, he evokes the youth of the Catalan team. “In football, there is no age. It is a sport that depends on the quality of each, how you train and your mentality. If you are prepared, you are prepared. We are a very young team, but we demonstrate that we have the level. Age is just a figure. “

Is Lamine Yamal too exposed?

The Spanish winger broke the precocity records after turn since his hatching at Barça. He played his first Liga match there at the age of 15, 9 months and 16 days. Its development continued, to the point of making it one of the most feared players on the team. A player criticized, too, since he does not scroll. “People say I’m arrogant?” As long as I win, they can’t tell me anything. ” One of his teammates has fun in the locker room for Madrid criticisms and confides that Yamine Lamal is “a character”.

His entourage, on the other hand, would like him to be more caution. “We would like him not to expose so much.” In Barcelona, ​​we find all the apologies. “The sufficiency he can let show is normal for a 17 -year -old.” In any case, all agree on a point. The elected representative by the world of football has notch.

Street footballers, Maradonathere is little left. They generally have a certain self -confidence, but of course also daring. They have a kind of intrinsic courage where rules and tactics do not govern the game. The game is the rule.

A nice record at FC Barcelona

During the shock against Inter, Lamine Yamal never seemed to be afraid. His splendid goal and his full match confirm this. To his first semi-final of the Champions League, he adds: “I am very excited, I can’t wait to show what we are capable of.”

He already won the Euro with Spain last summer. FC Barcelona came to the end of its eternal rival, Real Madrid, in Spanish Super Cup and in the King’s Cup. With a goal and two assists, the gifted football with outrageously early talent is the protagonist of these meetings which marked the history of the Spanish club.

Before the Barcelona training center understood only the best way to protect it on the sporting and emotional level was to transfer it to the Masia, Lamine Yamal spent his afternoons on Place Joan XXIII, in the popular district of Roca-Long for the city of Mataró, located an hour from Barcelona.

“He played with people much larger than him. He learned to defend himself, like geniuses, with talent, ”explains the young man’s entourage. “My fear, I left it there, a long time ago,” comments Lamine Yamal. It seems far away when Xavi Hernández gave him his first minutes of play against Betis. It was two years ago.

Since then, everything has been linked in his life. He has a lot of inspiration with his spectacular dribbles. He impresses by becoming the youngest scorer of the semi-finals of the Champions League. He has already played more than 100 games in the FC Barcelona jersey. He scored 22 goals and delivered 33 assists. “Few players did this at my age. Few players have played as many matches in a club as important as Barça. It is not given to everyone. ”

Does Lamine Yamal want to look like everyone? Certainly not. Neither in his attitude nor in his lifestyle. He is not content to put on the blaugrana colors of the club and to accept the pressure. He defies it. He likes to be under the spotlight.

This is how he decided, for the King’s Cup final, to dye his hair in blond. “I change my look and hairstyle because I get bored … I do it to have fun,” he told an employee of the FC Barcelona Who asked him why he wore this new cup.

He lives in a permanent vertigo. And when he doesn’t feel it, he summons it. “The pressure does not exist, everything is in the head,” he likes to repeat. He is not afraid of challenges. When he rooms Adrien Rabiot After the defeat of the French team against La Roja in the semi-finals of Euro 2024. Turning to the camera, the Barça player launches him a “Habla, Habla” (“speaks, now”).

As he taunts the player of the Blues, he attacks Rafael Van der Vaart. The former Dutch international had stung the Spanish nugget to the heart, pointing his “shorts down”. Lamine Yamal was quick to answer: “Short fell, a goal, a failed penalty, and in the semi-finals, go Spain,” he wrote in a photo of him with the La Roja jersey.

Yamal Lamine is expected to initial his new contract to his majority, in July, with a longer duration (2030) than what is authorized for minor players.

If, for him, “there is no age in football, and everything is a matter of individual qualities”, his club, on the other hand, insists on his 17 little spring. The beginning of the Lamine Yamal era at Barça.

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