Imagine being 16 years old and representing your country in a major tournament. Ramin Yamal has done just that.
The Barcelona star played a key role in Spain’s stunning 3-0 win over Croatia on Saturday, becoming the youngest player to feature in a European Championship.
His opponent was 38-year-old Luka Modric of Real Madrid, who was 21 when Yamal was born and had won the Croatian league twice and played 14 games for the Croatian national team.
But the crafty winger – whose full name is Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana – showed no signs of age as he dribbled through Croatia’s defence one after the other and helped Croatia make a real impact on their opening game of Euro 2024.
A sharp cross from Yamal set up Dani Carvajal for the third goal, and he could have easily scored himself but for some good goalkeeping from Dominik Livakovic.
With 51 appearances and seven goals already under his belt for Barcelona, it may not be a surprise to see Yamal perform alongside the best.
Certainly not those who knew him best.
“He will do things we cannot yet imagine.”
A hugely precocious talent, Yamal will turn 17 on July 13, the day before the final.
The youngest Euros player to date was 17 years and 246 days old, played by Poland’s Katzper Kozlowski in a 1-1 group stage draw with Spain in Seville in June 2021, but it is felt Yamal has the potential to break several more records in the coming days.
“He’s going to do things we can’t even imagine yet,” said Ivan Carrasco, who coached him at the junior level.
“I remember him as a boy who was very aware of his talent. In the world of sports, talented people can become very selfish, but that’s not the case with Yamal.”
“I saw a generous kid who didn’t want recognition. As a coach, sometimes I thought, ‘What can I teach him if he does something that you can’t imagine from the bench?'”
“The closer I get to Lamine, the more I realise the label ‘decisive’ is insufficient. He is a truly special footballer.”
Jaume Marset, a former Barcelona reporter and now a sports TV journalist, recalls the day he realised he was watching a genius.
“The most brutal play I’ve seen in grassroots football was Lamine’s in the Catalan cadet tournament final,” said Marset, an expert on grassroots football in Barcelona.
“I’ve seen Messi play some brutal games before but I’ve never seen anything like what Lamine did in that game against kids older than him. He did it all that day.”
“Light of hope”
Yamal’s trademark way of celebrating 304 is to curl three fingers on his right hand to form a “0” shape with his thumb and index finger, and curl four fingers on his left hand to form it.
It’s a homage to the area where he grew up, Rocafonda 304, an area of Barcelona rarely visited by the millions of tourists who flock to the Catalan capital, and one of the poorest not only in Catalonia but in all of Spain.
The boy, born to an Equatorial Guinean mother and a Moroccan father, was discovered by Barcelona at the age of seven while playing in the concrete park of Rocafonda, where his father took him by the hand and took him to the club, asking him: “Do you want my son to play for Barcelona?”
When they answered, “Yes,” he responded, “Well, you have to educate him first.”
Yamal enrolled at Barcelona’s La Masia academy despite living close to the school.
In an interview with Sport magazine, former La Masia director Xavi Martin recalled meeting with the player, his parents and his then-agent Iván de la Peña to discuss allowing the boy to live at La Masia.
“We met on a Tuesday and by Saturday he was already packing,” he said.
Yamal’s success is not just his success, but the success of an entire region that has been ignored, vilified and denigrated until now.
Through his success, he is a beacon of hope for those who believe that dreams can come true and anything is possible.
Yamal fell in love with soccer after watching his father and older cousins play in the park across the street from where he lived, where he was a frequent sight.
“I spent more time in the park than at home, and whenever I went outside it was to play football. Those were experiences that stayed with me,” he said.
The records just keep getting broken: at 15 years and 290 days old, he is the youngest player to play for Barcelona since Armando Saji, who was 15 in 1922.
At 16 years and 57 days old, he became Spain’s youngest player and youngest goalscorer in history.
A future Ballon d’Or winner?
Yamal’s talent has also attracted attention from Lionel Messi, to whom many compare him.
“How easy it is for Ramin to play?” the Argentine maestro commented in a WhatsApp message to one of his aides.
Messi has already mentioned Yamal’s name when asked about future Ballon d’Or contenders.
The player himself is realistic: “There will never be another player like Messi again,” Yamal said when asked about comparing himself to the Barcelona legend.
He may be right, but these days the giant banners seen at Barcelona home games feature a picture of Yamal signing the 304 autograph and the words “El futuro no espera” (The future waits for nothing).
The rest of the summer will determine whether the future has already arrived.