Hansi Flick’s Barcelona aspired to regain Europe this year after having won the three Spanish titles last season – League, Cup and Super Cup – and after losing in the Champions League semi-final against Inter. Lamine Yamal also wanted to take another step forward in his early and high-profile career. Both, an essential symbiosis for Barça’s success, are still in the waiting room. The German’s Barça is out of fuel, while Lamine alternates good performances with bad performances: sometimes he is distracted, other times busy; always as cold at the net when success approaches as he is angry on the pitch when everything goes wrong.
Lamine Yamal didn’t try to hide his anger when Hansi Flick replaced him in the 80th minute. Annoyed on the bench after being covered on the pitch by Cucurella – “He’s got it in his pocket”, joked Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sánchez – and pointed out by the London team’s fans. “You’re such an asshole Estevão“, they sang to him. To be kind, they came to tell him that Estevão was bad.
The comparison with Estevão is not trivial: both aspire to dominate football in the coming years. They are left-handed and 18 years old. Today their paths cross, when the past was on the verge of mixing them up as Barcelona players. In 2021, when the Brazilian was 14 years old, the scouting of the Barça club in Brazil warned that a talent was emerging that was destined to compete with the elite of world football. The proposal was simple: take him to train periodically and guarantee a relationship that would facilitate his arrival at the age of 18. Barça made no move. With the arrival of Deco, the name was brought up every season, but the answer was always the same: there was no money to bet on a 16-year-old boy. Even the latest offer, 30 million more variables, tempted no one.
The situation became tense after the Vitor Roque case. According to André Cury, then Barça manager in Brazil, the treatment the attacker received damaged confidence. The South American agent, as he explained to Cadena SER, was clear with the young Brazilian’s family: “We won’t go to Barcelona, look at how they treat my players”. The player ended up signing for Chelsea for 45 million plus 20 million in variables, an operation which, according to Cury, nullified a five-year follow-up ignored by Barça.
On Wednesday morning the English press praised the Brazilian, without however forgetting Lamine. “Estevão eclipses Lamine Yamal and proves why he is Chelsea’s rare diamond,” he posted Caretaker. AND The times And he went further: “Who is Lamine? Estevão destroys Barcelona in an impressive evening for Chelsea.”
Lamine’s leadership did not appear at Stamford Bridge. Without a clear captain in the squad – Lewandowski goes to get the ball and De Jong doesn’t believe it, while Araujo remains as lost as he is anxious – the number 10 carries (and asks to carry) too many stripes for his young age. Flick knows this: that’s why he lets him make some mistakes. There are those in the club who think there are already many; others, however, justify it: “He must learn to manage his life and his game. It doesn’t seem like it, but he is a kid. We will help him”, they comment in the Barcelona sports area.
Lamine’s management, moreover, is not Hansi Flick’s only problem. He is optimistic: “We will see a better Barça in the future. The team is different from the one it was six weeks ago.” According to the coach, the team is starting to recover the injured – only Gavi, Pedri and Ter Stegen remain in the infirmary – and the quality of the preparation will improve the team’s performance. The pressure, however, has lowered the intensity in the same way that the defense loses itself when it comes to shooting the line. A non-starting team, so far defeated in major events: they lost at the Santiago Bernabéu in La Liga, they couldn’t say a word against PSG and Chelsea in the Champions League.
Eintracht Frankfurt (9 December), Slavia Prague (21 January) and Copenhagen (28 January) appear in Barça’s European calendar. Fortunately for Barcelona’s defense – with Flick in charge they have only kept one clean sheet in Europe, against Benfica last year – they will only have to travel to the Czech Republic. If they win all three duels, they will reach 16 points in the Champions League group stage, enough in principle to finish in the top eight.
But Barcelona seems far from reigning in Europe. And Lamine no longer wears the crown to celebrate goals. The funny thing is that he doesn’t do it because he doesn’t think he can reign, but because it was a party dedicated to his ex-partner Nicki Nicole. Chelsea fans, just in case, have clarified who the young man in charge at Stamford Bridge is.
