It was Thursday 30 October, four days after the Santiago Bernabéu classic. A witness claims to have seen him cry: “I was crying!” he exclaimed. Others, however, maintain that he was simply upset. “I don’t know if he cried or not, what I know is that he needed a reset”, underlines those who know him. What everyone agrees on is that, in the usual silence of that afternoon at the Joan Gamper Sports City, after Hansi Flick’s team training, the young footballer could not clearly understand his own inner noise. I was physically sore and emotionally exhausted. We were talking about Lamine Yamal, the footballer who amazes the world of football and who, at the same time, occupies – and worries – Barcelona. They have fun too, of course. Since that day the number 10 has played four matches. The balance? Three goals and three assists.
To understand what was going through Lamine’s mind that day, it’s not enough to retrace the Bernabéu classic. We need to go a little further back: to summer.
With no commitments to Barcelona or the national team, Lamine wanted a summer to unwind after a year in which he had earned, on the pitch, a place in the spotlight of world football. He wanted to meet his idol Neymar and organize a memorable party for his 18th birthday.
Neymar was much more than a luxury guest. Their conversations in Rio de Janeiro went beyond fun: they talked about football and industry. Those who know the Brazilian say he often repeats a phrase to silence those who claim he has wasted his talent: “All my life I played football to save my people. I think I succeeded, don’t you?” Between game talk, fame and professionalism, Lamine passed through Ibiza before returning to Barcelona to be the owner of a party that left him controversial (achondroplastic people were hired) and a new companion: 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, wasn’t right. The relationship with Nicole was short, but intense; according to his colleagues, sometimes “too intense”. “I don’t think he was the best person for Lamine,” a member of the dressing room told this newspaper. Barça’s 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 most was a pain in his pubis. “He doesn’t seem to be doing very well,” they said then from the sports area. But Lamine wanted to be Lamine, even when his self-esteem didn’t go hand in hand with his football moment. And, on the eve of the classic, he fell into the trap of the Kings League: “Madrid steals, they complain,” he said laughing in a conversation with Ibai Llanos. The video didn’t take long to go viral, to the satisfaction of Gerard Piqué and his associates, nor did the reaction from those who find arrogance and shamelessness in Lamine’s attitude take long to arrive. Among these, teammate Dani Carvajal: “Speak now”, he still said on the Bernabéu pitch after Real had beaten Barça. Flick, less opportunistic, also expected another Lamine: “He must concentrate on trying.”
He seemed impassive —“I left the fear to Mataró,” he said before the classic in a video on social media—; However, the club and his entourage believed it was time to take him out of the spotlight a bit. Barcelona’s sporting management and the player’s entourage agree on the thesis: success undermines; defeat educates. The blow in the classic didn’t put him out of the game, but it made him reflect.
That October 30th was cathartic. Moving away from Nicki Nicole and determined to leave the pubic pain behind him, 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 are all 18 years old and we were young. As president Laporta said, we must support him and help him as much as possible because he is a great resource for the club. Lamine knows perfectly what he has to do on and off the pitch, and he is doing it: work calmly and speak little”, analyzed the Portuguese representative.
Lamine has lowered his public visibility, although on his networks he is always prepared when a major media event arises: few better than the Champions League duel against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (21, Movistar).
Everything was reinforced with a change in the working method: he asked to interrupt the recovery with the team of the head of physical preparation Julio Tous, and the medical services recommended treatment to the Belgian doctor Ernest Schilders, who went to Barcelona during the last break of the national team. “The injury will not end on a specific day. It has ups and downs. He has taken a step forward,” Flick stressed.
There is something that keeps intact: the relationship with the group. “It is said that sometimes he can make a bad gesture, but the truth is that in the dressing room he is the same as always. He is funny, a good teammate. He adds value on the pitch, of course, but also off it,” recalls one of Hansi Flick’s players.
Sometimes at ease in the noise, other times without knowing how to handle it, always in the spotlight, Lamine Yamal takes refuge in the only place where he feels truly safe: football.
