Spain and Barcelona wonderkid has won World Cup and European Championship but says there are no limits for his career.
L ike the kid he is, Lamine Yamal just wanted to keep playing. No fear, just fun: 19 July, New Jersey and he knew: this 19-year-old who had happily been asleep on the bus to the biggest match of his life.
Son of Mounir and Sheila, named after the family friends who helped them, “ touched by God’s wand ” in the words of the coach whose office is next door, there’s something about Lamine Yamal. Asked what he wanted, he said a trip to New York, so there he was, about to be a champion again.
The way Lamine Yamal tells it, Spain knew they were world champions before they had scored, in the moment Enzo Fernández was sent off.
The battle with the one, two, three players facing you is “very psychological”, Lamine Yamal says.
A little space made, from Porro’s cross Nico Williams headed back and Ferran Torres scored the goal.
The mini trophy is at Lamine Yamal’s mum’s house; he gave the Lego trophy to his dad but his little brother, Keyne, broke it. Lamine, 19, hugging Messi, 39 as if it was a baptism, the creation.
No one had ever won a Euros and a World Cup younger, at 19 years and six days. Messi was 35 when he won the World Cup; Diego Maradona was 25; Cristiano Ronaldo never has.
Luis de la Fuente likened Lamine Yamal to Salvador Dalí and Michelangelo, a genius.