What were you doing at sixteen? Lamine Yamal shot his country into the European Championship final with a world-class goal. This Saturday, the Spaniard celebrates his birthday. A reason for a closer introduction: 'I have changed a lot.'
"I wasn't even in puberty yet," said Gary Lineker about Yamal's age in an interview with The Guardian.
"Really, I'm not lying. I even hid when we had to shower. What Lamine Yamal is doing is incomprehensible. I'm stunned. Doing these kinds of things at his age is incredible."
How Yamal is experiencing the European Championship himself, he shared on Friday behind a cake with the number 17 with a group of Spanish journalists. On Sunday, he will play the final in Berlin. "Besides preparing for that, I'm also thinking about the fact that I can win the European Championship while I've just turned seventeen. That's not something that happens often," he said to Marca and others.
Never, in fact, because Yamal is breaking all records. He is the youngest ever, on all fronts. And he is developing at a rapid pace, as he himself notes. "I have changed a lot, as a person and in my way of playing. I have gained more confidence, become physically stronger... I am very happy with the changes I have undergone."
Mbappé's Shirt
Back to his moment last Tuesday. Yamal picked up the ball against Adrien Rabiot, who had said ahead of the Spain - France match that the top talent needed to show more to reach the European Championship final. "You don't think about those things. And you don't pay attention to who is in front of you," Yamal reflected.
With a feint, he wrong-footed the Frenchman. "That comes from the street, from playing with my friends," said Yamal, who is from the migrant town of Mataró, near Barcelona. "There you learn to look one way and go the other."
He knew earlier than anyone: this one is going in. "There is a photo showing me already starting to run after I shot. When you hit the ball like that, you know it's a goal or that you're very close." His friends saw it too. "They went crazy. That match against France caused an explosion. They told me that everyone in my street in Mataró was shouting my name."
Yamal is experiencing the European Championship in a daze. After the semifinal, Kylian Mbappé asked for his shirt. "If Mbappé asks for it, I'm happy to give it to him," laughed Yamal. "No problem. I don't even know which shirt I got. When we beat France, I was only thinking about the final. I was so happy that I forgot."
At the European Championship, Spain's confidence is palpable, embodied by Yamal. "Before the tournament, we already warned everyone that this group had potential and that we were favorites, even if people didn't think so. It was crazy for us to hear that we weren't considered among the top five contenders. It took a while, but everyone who is now on board is welcome."
What Yamal wants for his seventeenth birthday is clear. "I told my mother that I don't want a gift if we win. I just want to celebrate it in Madrid with my teammates."
