Spain or Morocco... Lamine Yamal has chosen his national team
Lamine Yamal is set to become the youngest player to debut for the Spanish national team. The 16-year-old rising star had the choice between Spain, where he was born and developed his career, or Morocco, his father's country. Ultimately, the Barcelona prodigy has opted for La Roja.
Lamine held meetings with both sides. The Moroccan coach, Walid Regragui, and representatives from the Federation who traveled to Barcelona, Francis Hernández and Tito Blanco, were all part of the discussions, supervised by the national team director, Albert Luque.
Regragui will announce the squad for the September matches against Liberia and Burkina Faso, knowing that Lamine won't be available.
The forward has played in all of Spain's youth categories, including the recent Under-17 European Championship, where he once again felt the full trust of the Federation. Any doubts he may have had were quickly dispelled.
Xavi, the coach of Barcelona, also contributed his support, expressing in a press conference his desire to see the player represent the Spanish national team.
Lamine is on De la Fuente's preliminary list for the matches against Georgia and Cyprus, qualifiers for the 2024 European Championship. On Friday, he'll be included in the final list by the Rioja-born coach.
The Federation has once again acted efficiently, as seen in the previous season with Abde. However, on that occasion, the Barcelona forward, despite committing to Spain, was not called up by Luis Enrique and eventually chose Morocco, representing them in the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
While institutional turmoil continues, the sports area remains fully operational, with the immediate challenge of securing qualification for the 2024 European Championship under the leadership of Luis de la Fuente.
