It was Thursday, October 30, four days after the classic at the Santiago Bernabéu. A witness claims that he saw him tearing up: “I was crying!” he exclaimed. Others, however, claim that he was simply distraught. “I don’t know if he cried or not; what I do know is that he needed a reset,” those who know him highlight. What everyone agrees on is that, in the usual silence of that time of the afternoon at the Joan Gamper Sports City, after Hansi Flick’s team’s training, the young footballer could not clearly understand his own internal noise. I was physically sore and emotionally exhausted. They were talking about Lamine Yamal, the footballer who marvels the world of football and who, at the same time, occupies – and worries – Barcelona. They also enjoy it, of course. Since that day, number 10 has played four games. The balance? Three goals and three assists.
To understand what was going through Lamine’s head that day, it is not enough to rewind to the classic at the Bernabéu. You have to go a little further back: to summer.
Without commitments to Barcelona or the national team, Lamine wanted a summer to disconnect after a year in which he had earned, on the field, a place in the spotlight of world football. He wanted to meet his idol Neymar and have a memorable party for his 18th birthday.
Neymar was much more than a luxury host. Their conversations in Rio de Janeiro transcended fun: they talked about football and the industry. Those who know the Brazilian say that he often repeats a phrase to silence those who claim that he wasted his talent: “All my life I have played football to save my people. I think I have achieved it, right?” Between talks about the game, fame and professionalism, Lamine passed through Ibiza before returning to Barcelona to be the owner of a party that left him controversial (people with achondroplasia were hired) and a new partner: the singer Nicki Nicole.
The season, in any case, began as the previous one had ended: three games, two goals and three assists. Something, however, didn’t quite add up. The relationship with Nicole was short, but intense; according to his colleagues, at times “too intense.” “I don’t think she was the person who suited Lamine best,” a member of the locker room told this newspaper. The Barça number 10 was emotionally restless, a new setback after seeing how Dembélé won the Ballon d’Or at the France Football gala.
What worried Lamine the most was a pain in his pubic bone. “He doesn’t seem to be too fine,” they said, at that time, from the sports area. But Lamine wanted to be Lamine, even when his self-esteem does not go hand in hand with his football moment. And, in the run-up to the classic, he fell into the trap of the Kings League: “Madrid steals, they complain,” he said with a laugh in a conversation with Ibai Llanos. The video did not take long to go viral, to the satisfaction of Gerard Piqué and company, nor did it take long for the reaction to arrive from those who find arrogance and cockiness in Lamine’s attitude. Among them, his teammate Dani Carvajal: “Speak now,” he still said on the Bernabéu pitch after Madrid beat Barça. Flick, less opportunistic, also expected another Lamine: “He has to focus on trying hard.”
He seemed impassive —“I left the fear in Mataró,” he had said before the classic in a video on social networks—; However, the club and its entourage believed that the time had come to remove him from the focus a little. Barcelona’s sports management and the player’s entourage agreed on the thesis: success spoils; defeat educates. The blow in the classic did not knock him out, but it did make him reflect.
That October 30th was cathartic. Distanced from Nicki Nicole and determined to leave the pain in his pubes behind, Lamine accepted the club’s plan: less load of matches, especially with the national team. A week later, his agent Jorge Mendes landed in Barcelona. “I don’t understand the noise around Lamine Yamal. We have all been 18 years old and we have been young. As president Laporta said, we must support him and help him to the maximum because he is a great asset to the club. Lamine knows perfectly well what he has to do on and off the field, and he is doing it: work calmly and talk little,” analyzed the Portuguese representative.
Lamine lowered his public exposure, although on his networks he is always prepared for when a big media event appears: few better than the Champions League duel against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (9:00 p.m., Movistar).
Everything was reinforced with a change in the working method: he asked to stop recovering with the team of head of physical preparation Julio Tous, and the medical services recommended treatment from the Belgian doctor Ernest Schilders, who traveled to Barcelona during the last national team break. “The injury will not end on a specific day. It has ups and downs. He has taken a step forward,” Flick highlighted.
There is something that he keeps intact: his relationship with the group. “It is said that sometimes he may have a bad gesture, but the truth is that in the locker room he is the same as always. He is fun, a good teammate. He adds value on the field, obviously, but also off it,” remembers one of Hansi Flick’s players.
Sometimes comfortable in the noise, other times without knowing how to manage it, always in the spotlight, Lamine Yamal takes refuge in the only place where he feels truly safe: football.
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