If Lamine Yamal already stands out for his speed, consider the evolution of his career. It was as recently as May 2022 when word started to get around the wider game that Barcelona had another one. When one of the scouts that discovered Andres Iniesta was asked by senior football figures about whispers that the club had “one very special player”, the response was instantaneous. “Lamine Yamal.” There usually tends to be a relatively long build-up from that, as hype builds for a few seasons. Not here.
A year after that, when just 15, he was scoring a spectacular curling long-range goal against France in the under-17 European Championships semi-final. A year after that, which was Tuesday night, he was scoring an almost identical goal in the actual European Championships semi-final against a France team filled with stars.
It was so much more than just a brilliant strike, though. It was a clutch moment that teams generally look to from their most experienced players. Spain looked out of sorts for the first time in the tournament, and Yamal set them right and sent them on their way back to Berlin for the final.
Yamal evidently isn’t afraid to throw himself into it in any sense. Before the game, France’s Adrien Rabiot had said: “If Lamine wants to play in the final he will have to do more things than he has done so far.”
After he made a point with his feet, by doing exactly what Rabiot had said, the 16-year-old made a point with his words.
“Speak now,” he said. He even beat Rabiot for the goal to add to it. By this stage, and a press conference where the first real edge of his career was being discussed, it already seemed we were beyond discussing the fact that he was the youngest ever scorer in a European Championship by a good year and a half.
He is so much more than a mere record, even at this point. He is one of the stars of the Euro 2024, and a player that either Netherlands or England will have to be greatly prepared for at the final on Sunday.
Those who have been preparing for his arrival for years are proud. When that same scout instantly responded with Yamal’s name, he added his position with just the classic Barcelona number: “10”.
As the complete talent that Yamal is, he will likely evolve into that position in his senior career in the exact same way Leo Messi did. For now, he’s playing on the wing, but the effect is arguably all the greater.
Yamal and Nico Williams give Spain something that even their great 2008-12 lacked. It is a pace and pure imagination on the wing, that clearly terrifies teams. There is absolutely no coincidence that the country’s first men’s final in 12 years comes now they have such talent. The abundant control of their possession game has finally been complemented by a contrasting approach. Spain no longer have to keep passing until they find the gap, no matter how long it takes. Williams and Lamal just burst holes in the opposition.
They can do that with either their pace, or their ingenuity. For all that they are now seen as a double act – and one luscious ball from Williams to Yamal illuminated the semi-final – they are also individuals with very different qualities, and on different paths, as symbolised by the opposite wings.
Barcelona actually want to put them together since they are pursuing Williams from Athletic Bilbao. Considerable doubts have been raised in the market over whether they actually have the money, given there are constant murmurs that the Catalan club actually have to sell one of their jewels. It would be unthinkable to let Yamal go. He is the future.
He also represents the future in another sense. While Yamal’s words for Rabiot in celebrating received most attention, he also did a particular gesture with his hands. That is to denote ‘304’, the postcode for Rocafonda, where he grew up. It is one of the most deprived areas in Spain, that has inevitably and grimly received attention from the far right, that Yamal’s father has spoken out about.
Yamal, at just 16, was speaking for the people of a region. He was also playing for his country, a symbol of a new Spain in so many senses.
In his man-of-the-match press conference – which went past midnight, and even raised questions over how the law applied here to someone of his age – he had been asked about his mother. He will actually turn 17 the day before the final, and the question was obviously what her present would be.
“I told my mother that there is no need to buy me gifts on my 17th birthday, if we win the championship.”
“It’s her dream, too,” he added. Like everything else about his career, it could be much more than hopes and words very quickly.
