The story of Lamine Yamal and his rapid rise to Barcelona’s first team

Lamine Yamal Nasraoui turns sixteen today. He has spent nine of those years playing for Barça, the club where he will soon begin his tenth season. The great pearl of La Masia can already sign his first professional contract and although he is still a teenager, Lamine faces his first year as a youth player with a background unbefitting of his age.

His surname is Nasaraoui Ebana and not Yamal, which is his middle name. With a Moroccan father and a mother from Equatorial Guinea, Lamine Yamal was born in Esplugues but his family moved first to Mataró and then to Granollers.

He lives in La Masia

He has lived his last years in Sant Joan Despí, at La Masia. In the Barça residence, Lamine is a much loved boy thanks to his very good behaviour. His humility and shyness stand out there, although he is also known for his jokes and gets on well with the other residents. Pasta is his favourite dish and he has a weakness for sweets. Like everyone else, he follows the advice of director Mike Puig to the letter.

Five years in 7-a-side

Summer 2014. At the age of seven, Lamine Yamal began his football training at Barça. David Sánchez, coach of the prebenjamín, manages to put together a group of boys from 2007 who look very good, including Lamine Yamal, a very skilful left-footed striker who arrives from La Torreta.

La Torreta? Some people have never heard of this modest club from La Roca del Vallés but the club's observers don't let any team in Catalonia go unwatched, to track and capture talent, a word that defines Lamine from his first training session and his first match.

In his five years in 7-a-side football, from Pre-Benjamin to Alevín A, Lamine Yamal stands out for his technical quality. His left foot is a marvel, capable of finishing, dribbling and passing with surgical precision. His coaches place him as a centre-forward, although in Barça's 1-3-2-1 formation, he can also adapt to playing at left-back.

Living with COVID

The leap to 11-a-side football is not easy, but for little Lamine football has no secrets. In the Infantil B team, with Albert Puig as coach, Lamine Yamal continues to rack up huge numbers of goals and assists. But the most remarkable thing about his football is that he lacks the selfishness typical of some technically gifted players.

When you are better than your team-mates and opponents you run the risk of wanting to play alone, but Lamine never succumbed to that temptation. His football is explosive but at the same time generous, his plays are brilliant but he never loses sight of the fact that the goal is to win. Playing well and beautifully is not about showing off a fireworks technique. His dribbles or his brilliant touches are to break lines, create and score goals, not to win a showmanship contest.

His football is very aesthetic but always very practical too. In these two years of Infantil level, the pandemic slowed down his projection -- in March 2020 he finished his first year at that level and the second resumed from the first weeks of 2021, having to play a compressed league schedule.

First big leap

Although he had played few matches in 11-a-side football due to the pandemic, the management of the youth team decided that he had to move directly to Iván Carrasco's Cadete A, skipping the Cadete B led by Pol Planas. It was a risky decision that worked out well, very well.

If in the two years at Infantil level Lamine alternated between the position of the No 9 with No 7, in the season 2021/22 Lamine consolidated himself as a brilliant false nine. In this position, Lamine was able to be a creator and a scorer, to participate a lot in the game and at the same time to step into the box to finish the job.

His last game with the Cadete A in the final of the Catalan Championship against Sant Andreu was remarkable. The comments from the fans who came to Martorell agreed. The footballing display they had witnessed was of another level. Everything seemed to suggest that in his second year as a Cadet the club would decide to take him up a step and promote him to the Juvenil B. It was not to be.

They opted for another unprecedented leap in the history of La Masia, a Cadet was to start the season for all intents and purposes with the Juvenil A team. Not even with Leo Messi was such a brave decision taken. And it worked out very well once again.

Another unexpected boost

Under the orders of Óscar López, Lamine Yamal once again surprised everyone with another extraordinary leap in quality. In this case, his position has changed again and he has consolidated himself during the whole season as a right winger.

He has not been a No 7 in the usual way, one of those who wait for the ball and try to unbalance defences and cross. Lamine has offered much more. He has made the team look for him in such a way that the game has pivoted towards a sector of the pitch that is normally only occasionally activated.

Lamine made the right wing a starting position from which he has been able to link up with the full-back and the interior midfielder of his flank and in turn with the No 9 and the left winger in a very natural way.

His symphony of passes sounded like heavenly music. Lamine has lost none of his spark, speed or dribbling and finishing ability, but this past season he has managed to stand out with his pinpoint, imaginative passing.

His magical football made exclaim during a Barça TV commentary: "It's not Lamine Yamal, it's Lamine Genial!"

A genius still in his infancy, to be polished and pampered, with whom you have to be daring but also patient. A 100 percent La Masia super-talent who Xavi will know how to mould and develop so that Cules can enjoy him for a long time to come.