Lamine Yamal, a star winger who lately completed second within the Ballon d’Or, world soccer’s equal of the MVP award, performs with a talent that belies his age.
At simply 18, he would not but have a driver’s license and nonetheless wears braces, all whereas wonderful on the sphere for FC Barcelona or Barça. He made his professional debut for Barça at 15, turning into the youngest participant within the membership’s 126-year historical past. Lamine is aware of he is dribbling rings round gamers with years on him.
“If I had been a fullback, I would not prefer it if a participant who’s significantly better than me had been to maintain getting away from me on a regular basis. I would ask them ‘please decelerate a bit,’ in any other case my buddies would make memes about it,” Lamine mentioned in Spanish.
From the 304 to Barça
Lamine, who was born in Spain to a Moroccan father and Equatorial Guinean mom, began enjoying soccer from a younger age. He grew up in Rocafonda, a struggling North African immigrant enclave northeast of Barcelona. There, he honed his expertise on a concrete slab that doubled as a soccer pitch–only a brief kick from the Mediterranean.
Lamine Yamal
60 Minutes
“It was a neighborhood the place nobody knew what was going to occur of their lives. The reality is, nobody knew whether or not they would develop into a soccer participant, an architect, a painter, or whether or not they’d discover a job,” Lamine mentioned. “You see your mother and father working, they can not be with you on a regular basis, and you are feeling, not nervous, however unsure about what is going on to occur to you.”
Simply blocks from the makeshift soccer pitch, Lamine’s uncle Abdul runs the LY 304 Cafe.
“Lamine was very savvy as a toddler, doing all the pieces on his personal,” Abdul mentioned in Spanish. “He has the maturity of a 25- or 30-year-old.”
Barcelona scouts noticed Lamine when he was simply 6. Quickly, he was taking the prepare to follow at La Masia, Barça’s famed youth academy.
In the present day, after Lamine scores a objective, he acknowledges the previous neighborhood by flashing a 304 — the image for his neighborhood’s ZIP code.
The Lionel Messi-Lamine Yamal connection
For believers within the soccer gods, Lamine Yamal’s ascent to the higher echelons of the game might nearly appear predestined with Lamine anointed by a Barça icon — Lionel Messi.
As a toddler, Lamine’s household gained a raffle to look alongside an FC Barcelona participant in a UNICEF calendar, and in October of 2007, photographer Joan Monfort captured footage of a chubby-cheeked, 3-month-old Lamine in a blue plastic tub being given a shower by none aside from Lionel Messi, then 20.
In the present day, Lamine is frequently in comparison with Messi, who performed for Barça from 2004 to 2021 and has gained eight Ballons d’Or over his profession.
“He is the most effective in historical past,” Lamine mentioned. “We each know I do not need to be Messi, and Messi is aware of I do not need to be him. I need to comply with my very own path, and that is it.”
“Intoxicating to look at”
In his brief time enjoying professionally, Lamine has enraptured soccer purists like 70-year-old Ray Hudson, a former professional participant, coach and broadcaster who’s lined Lamine’s video games.
“He is extraordinarily, extraordinarily, extraordinarily good,” Hudson mentioned of Lamine Yamal. “That is an absolute uncut diamond.”
Lamine, who Hudson describes as “intoxicating to look at,” is usually a problem to defend towards together with his dribbling talent and unpredictability.
“[Defenders] need to ignore him, which is ridiculous,” Hudson mentioned. “As a result of as soon as Yamal sends you the mistaken manner with that fantastic feign that he has, the defender has to pay to get again into the stadium.”
Ray Hudson
60 Minutes
Followers say Lamine could make magic occur when the sport tightens. It is a capability Lamine mentioned he developed when he performed rising up in his previous neighborhood.
“There have been, like, partitions the place folks would sit, and I believe there was no higher feeling than getting the individuals who had been sitting there to face up, to snort on the opponents,” Lamine mentioned. “I believe it is the most effective feeling on this planet and one thing that jogs my memory of that rather a lot is after I’m enjoying on the sphere and the followers stand up and are shocked by a play I’ve made.”
Lamine mentioned he likes to brighten folks’s days together with his enjoying.
“If somebody is gloomy, they’ll come to a recreation, watch me and really feel higher, so that they go residence happier than they had been earlier than,” he mentioned.
How Lamine is managing tremendous stardom at 18
Some folks have fearful concerning the calls for on Lamine as a younger participant. Lamine mentioned he has a help workforce prepared to inform him “no” and name him out when wanted.
“The reality is that everybody says ‘No.’ Everybody in my circle says ‘No’ to all the pieces,” Lamine mentioned. “If I need to exit: ‘No.’ If I say that I need to exit to eat: ‘No.’ The query must be: ‘Who do you take heed to?’ My mom.”
Nonetheless, Lamine mentioned it is unattainable for him to be a traditional 18-year-old.
“In the long run, an 18-year-old child will get out of faculty and goes residence. I am going out to follow whereas 4 paparazzi are at my home asking me questions on my life. I activate the TV, and I am on TV,” Lamine mentioned. “I stroll down the road, and I see a child carrying my jersey. I need to exit for a drink, and I am unable to as a result of folks will cease me.”
He described discovering some normalcy in easy issues, like enjoying video video games and spending time together with his brother. Nonetheless, Lamine mentioned he would not thoughts being a star, “No, actually, I do not. The truth is, I prefer it.”
When requested if Spain would win the 2026 World Cup, Lamine Yamal did not equivocate. He informed 60 Minutes, “In English? Sure.”