A press colleague from Paris, Vivienne Walt, who writes for Time magazine, was in Barcelona in early 2018 writing a story about Barça. As part of her research, she focused inevitably on the wonder of Lionel Messi, 30 at the time, and smashing it. While ambling around the training paddocks at Barça’s celebrated youth academy, she asked a coach who was going to be Messi’s successor. The coach stopped and pointed at a scrawny, 10-year-old black kid. “See that boy there? He’s the one.” He was pointing at Lamine Yamal.
Barça have long known they had a winning lottery ticket. In April 2023, a 15-year-old Lamine Yamal became the club’s youngest La Liga debutant in history, one of several records the precocious winger has set. His name went around the world in the summer of 2024 when, as a 16-year-old, he scored the goal of the tournament in the European Championships semi-final, in a 2-1 victory for Spain against France, propelling his country towards their fourth continental title.
Last season, Yamal scored the goal of the tournament in the Champions League. In the first leg of a pulsating semi-final, he slalomed his way through Internazionale’s defence before chopping a curling shot, without needing a back lift, in off the post. Inter’s goalkeeper, Yann Sommer, stood, hands out, rooted to his feet like a man with no answers.
Yamal was irresistible last spring. For a couple of months, week in, week out, he was unplayable. Coaches struggled to find words to describe this once-in-a-generation talent flowering before their eyes. His late-season form, including clutch performances in games against Real Madrid, which ensured Barça won a league-and-cup double, catapulted Yamal into second place in this year’s Ballon d’Or award voting, behind Ousmane Dembélé.
RM Block
Yamal is the youngest player in history to make the Ballon d’Or podium, two years younger than Messi when he finished runner-up in 2007. But the pressure on Yamal, who was given Messi’s iconic number 10 jersey at Barça during the summer, to match Messi threatens to melt his head. It’s unlikely we will ever see a footballer both as gifted and prolific as Messi. As Jorge Valdano, who was a World Cup winner alongside Diego Maradona in 1986, once remarked about Messi’s tirelessness: “Maradona was Maradona sometimes, Messi is Maradona every day.”
To put Messi’s feats at Barça into context consider his old team-mate, the centre forward Samuel Eto’o. They won a Champions League title together with Barça in 2006, before Eto’o left, adding another to his resumé at Inter. Eto’o played five seasons at Barça at the peak of his career. Eto’o was a natural-born striker. He once scored more than 30 goals a season at Barça. Messi scored more than 30 goals a season 13 times while playing for Barça. He also regularly topped the assists charts in La Liga.
Messi is monk-like in his dedication to his trade. He lives a quiet life in the shadows with his family. He has known his wife, a childhood sweetheart, since he was five years of age. Yamal lives life in the public eye. He’s a darling of la prensa rosa, the tabloid press in Spain, and around the world. He’s dating an Argentinian rapper, Nicki Nicole, who is seven years older than him. She was pictured in the stands during the week for Barça’s 6-1 win against Olympiacos in the Champions League.
Yamal scored in the game, a penalty, his first goal in 51 days. Something is not right in his world. His performances this season have been patchy. He drifts in and out of games. He’s not decisive. He starts dribbles, but they don’t create danger or lead to goals. He’s struggled with a groin injury.
In September, Yamal was summoned for duty with Spain’s national team. He started both games, away, against Turkey and Bulgaria, with the help of painkillers. Spain won both games easily, 0-6 and 0-3, respectively. Barça’s coach Hansi Flick was furious that Spain’s coach Luis de la Fuente chose to play the youngster, as he wasn’t fully fit.
There is a grave risk Yamal will burn out. He played 50 games for Barça during the 2023-2024 season, 55 club games last season, and a total of 21 internationals for Spain over those two seasons, all before turning 18. By the same age, Messi had played one official match for Barça and had yet to be capped for Argentina (Messi made his Argentina debut as a substitute against Hungary in 2005 but was sent off after 47 seconds for elbowing a Hungarian defender).
There’s nobody tightening the reins on Yamal – neither his coaches with Barça and Spain, nor, it seems, his father, Mounir Nasraoui, a Moroccan who immigrated to Spain before Yamal’s birth. Nasraoui is constantly in the news for the wrong reasons. In 2023, he was charged with assaulting a member of Vox, Spain’s far right party. Last year, in a neighbourhood dispute, he was stabbed three times in a car park. He spent several days in intensive care but recovered.
According to Marca, Nasraoui pocketed €3 million for switching his son’s agents in 2024, signing up with Jorge Mendes. Last month, a social media clip – culled from a 30-minute home video of Nasraoui doing a tutorial on how to cook chicken nuggets – went viral in which the footballer’s father boasted that he’s exploiting his son’s success: “Thanks son. I will always be grateful to you. I will live off you.”
Yamal is swimming in money. During the summer, he renegotiated his contract with Barça, extending his ties with the club until 2031. The deal increased his wages tenfold, jumping him to a reported baseline salary of €30 million gross, increasing to almost €40 million with add-on bonuses, surpassing the €36 million gross Robert Lewandowski will earn in the final year of his contract.
This excludes cash he earns from wealthy endorsement deals. Last year, for example, he inked a 10-year deal with Adidas, reportedly worth €32 million.
Yamal can live large. The celebrity bash he threw for his 18th birthday party in the summer drew criticism because he hired dwarf entertainers. Also, a model, Claudia Calvo, who was approached to source 12 women for the party, claimed on social media that the party’s organisers wanted to find women “mainly on breast size or [blonde] hair colour”.
Last week, the press in Spain were giddy gossiping that Yamal was late for a team meeting before their 2-1 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. Being late for a meeting is a red line with Flick. Earlier this season, Marcus Rashford was dropped for a game for the same infraction. Other stars such as Raphinha and Jules Koundé have also been dropped because of punctuality errors.
This time, however, according to several respected media outlets, including La Vanguardia, Barça’s sporting director, Deco, stepped in and pressured Flick to waive any disciplinary action. Yamal played the match. Afterwards, Flick denied in a press conference that Yamal had got any special treatment.
At worst, Flick wasn’t telling the truth, and his authority has been gravely undermined. At best, he’s a victim of Barça’s notorious “entorno”, a phrase coined by “Dream Team” coach Johan Cruyff to explain the vicious political environment of rumour and back-stabbing, nurtured by the local media, that swirls around FC Barcelona.
The history of football is littered with footballers who burned brightly but never reached their full potential for varying reasons – players like Michael Owen (injury), Bojan Krkić (mental health) and even Neymar Jr (social life). It remains to be seen how Yamal’s career will play out. The expectation is huge. He’s already valued at over €400 million, according to CIES, the Swiss football research institute, significantly more than his nearest rival, Erling Haaland, at €239.6 million.
Let’s see if Yamal can stamp his mark on the clásico at the Santiago Bernabéu, a stadium nicknamed “Messi’s garden” during the years the Argentinian maestro plundered there. Neither Barça nor Real Madrid look convincing so far this season. If he can find his form again, a bit of Lamine Yamal magic could be decisive.
Marcus Rashford’s second coming
Marcus Rashford has been reborn in Spain. After a few years in the wilderness, the best version of Rashford has returned. Interestingly, Rashford was Barça’s third choice when the club went looking for a backup forward in the summer. Once a deal with Nico Williams fell through at the last minute, and it was made clear that Luis Díaz was too expensive, Barça picked up Rashford in a bumper deal – a year on loan, with an option to buy for €30 million.
Rashford has taken advantage of intermittent injuries to Barça’s attacking players – including Robert Lewandowski, Ferran Torres, Raphinha, Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo – to establish himself as a regular starter, one of only four players, along with Eric Garcia, Jules Koundé and Pedri, to feature in every game. He’s the team’s most effective striker, chipping in with five goals and six assists in 12 games.
Rashford is enjoying life, too, by the Mediterranean. He lives outside the city, in a beachside town called Gavà, which is also where Luis Enrique lives when he’s not in Paris coaching PSG. Rashford enjoys playing padel and even a spot of fishing. During the week against Olympiacos in the Champions League, he scored a brace and won Barça a penalty playing centre forward, a position that will likely be vacant next season when Lewandowski’s contract expires. No doubt, he’ll be keen to emulate Gary Lineker, the last Englishman to play for Barça, by scoring in the clásico.
La Liga: Real Madrid v Barcelona, Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Sunday, 3.15pm (Premier Sports 1)
