Last Monday, Lamine Yamal was warmly celebrated on his return to home turf as Barcelona played their traditional season-opening Joan Gamper Trophy match against Monaco.
There was plenty to cheer about after a summer that marked the highest point yet in a remarkable career that defies his tender age. Yamal returned from Euro 2024 with the rest of the world now fully woken up to what everyone around Barca has witnessed over the 16 months since his senior debut at 15 in April 2023.
By Wednesday, a dramatic turn of events left the 17-year-old facing very difficult circumstances. Two days after the Monaco friendly, Yamal’s father was stabbed in a parking lot in Rocafonda, the neighbourhood where Yamal grew up in Mataro, a small city about 20 kilometres (12 miles) up the coast from Barcelona.
Mounir Nasraoui was taken to hospital with wounds that, according to initial reports, left him in a “serious condition”. Later that night, the Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalan local police, confirmed three people were arrested. A fourth was arrested the following morning. Since then, three have been let go.
Nasraoui has recovered from the injuries. On Friday, he was released from hospital and allowed to return home. The next day, Barca were playing their opening match of the league season, away to Valencia.
How is a 17-year-old, already the face of one of the biggest football clubs in the world, expected to cope with that? According to dressing-room sources — who, like all those cited here, spoke anonymously as they did not have permission to comment — the way Yamal handled the situation left many of his team-mates very impressed.
“He was the best performer in our small practice games, absolutely amazing,” said one such source. “It looked as if stepping onto the football pitch just made him switch off from everything else, honestly.”
Yamal did not miss one training session last week and insisted he was ready to play on the weekend against Valencia. Accompanied by his representatives and family members, he visited his dad in hospital last Thursday. Barcelona representatives also paid Nasraoui visits every day.
At Valencia, Yamal played 86 minutes and set up Robert Lewandowski for his opening goal in a 2-1 win as Barca came from behind. He showed strong glimpses of his best — including a ‘roulette’ trick to spin away from his marker before launching Ferran Torres through on goal.
La roulette de Lamine Yamal 💫#LaLigaHighlights#ValenciaBarça (1-2) pic.twitter.com/qDhOKNGfI9
— FC Barcelona (@fcbarcelona_fra) August 17, 2024
The crowd at the Mestalla gave Yamal a standing ovation as he was taken off with four minutes to go. This was a recognition of the happiness he brought this summer — he was named young player of the tournament as Spain won the European Championship. It will be interesting to see how he is received at other grounds around the country this early season — because it already feels like he has become a true global superstar.
Goal of the semi-finals ✅
Lamine Yamal’s incredible strike wins it! 😮💨👏#EUROGOTT | @AlipayPlus pic.twitter.com/BMzFOgLEkG
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) July 14, 2024
What does this all mean for him and Barca?
As you might imagine, excitement levels among fans are through the roof. At the Joan Gamper match, Yamal songs started and supporters stood to applaud and take pictures when they finally got sight of their now fully established hero. Many locals see this season as the first in a new era of ‘Lamine Yamal’s Barcelona’. It inevitably means comparisons with Lionel Messi. And it’s all happened so quickly.
Yamal greets young fans at the Joan Gamper Trophy (Pedro Salado/Getty Images)
If you look back 12 months, before the 2023-24 campaign, Yamal was not even guaranteed to be a part of Barcelona’s squad rotation. Manager Xavi was pushing the club to explore the signing of a new winger. As much as Yamal had impressed in friendly games, some were wary of rushing him.
This is a different world. Last month, Barcelona announced Yamal’s full registration as a first-team member and his new squad number. He will wear the No 19, the same he wore with Spain during Euro 2024 — and another stepping stone on that path behind Barca legend Messi (the Argentinian was given that number as he stepped up into Barca’s first team for the 2005-06 season).
Barca sources say this was seen as an unmissable opportunity to meet the expected growth in demand around Yamal, and to help create a more consolidated brand around him — without applying too much pressure. There had been speculation over whether Yamal would be given Barcelona’s legendary No 10 shirt. But no matter how high his potential is, all sides have always considered that pushing comparisons with Messi will do Yamal no favours.
On July 19, Barca launched their new kit for 2024-25, one that honours the club’s 125th anniversary (it was founded on November 29, 1899). At the senior offices, it was always expected that sales would be high. What happened defied even their predictions.
In just three hours, Barcelona sold the same number of shirts they managed in the whole first day of sales before the 2023-2024 season. By the end of the day, the highest-ever figure registered in day-one sales was reached — and no name was stamped more often than Yamal’s. Robert Lewandowski, Pedri and Gavi followed as the most popular choices.
The extent of Yamal’s popularity was also expressed on Tuesday last week during Sergi Roberto’s farewell event. Xavi was invited by Barca, and he attended with his family. His youngest child wore the new Barcelona shirt with Yamal’s name and number on the back. When Yamal arrived, he posed for a photo with the child.
This term, Yamal will be the absolute owner of the right-wing spot in Hansi Flick’s front line. Raphinha, the player who started there last season, was moved to the left flank in all of Barca’s pre-season games. Against Valencia, he featured in a more central attacking midfield role.
Yamal was key in Barca’s victory at Valencia on Saturday (Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images)
Barca gave Yamal two weeks to switch off from the madness he lived at the Euros — a time of adjustment to the new superstar status international football threw him into.
Having celebrated his 17th birthday the day before the 2-1 final victory over England on July 14, Yamal decided to head to Greece and an isolated luxury complex where he could relax away from football.
His trip there was slightly circuitous, involving two planes and a stop in London. On his way to catch the second flight, he was asked to take so many pictures at the airport that he missed the connection.
He also spent some days in the south of Portugal, where he visited his agent Jorge Mendes’ mansion, and lastly travelled to Marbella in the south of Spain, where he reunited with Spain’s other summer sensation, and his best friend in the game, Nico Williams.
“We had already seen the attention he was generating in every place he went. We expected it would get even worse in Marbella, so we hired security guards to ensure everything went well,” said a source close to the 17-year-old.
A Barca dressing-room source adds: “He is happy, not complaining about it, and rarely refuses to take a photo. He knows what it can mean for some people. But when this madness becomes a usual thing, in some moments it might be harder to take.”
Everything is set and ready for Yamal to keep progressing and showing what he can do on a football pitch. Off it, conversations might soon be taking place, too.
Yamal signed his first professional contract last October, agreeing to a three-year deal with a €1billion (£850m; $1.1bn) release clause — a figure that is quite common at Barca and Real Madrid that reflects Spain’s unique relationship with these clauses.
At that time, the player and Barcelona agreed that his personal conditions would be updated in the summer of 2025, as soon as Yamal turned 18. However, his rapid rise means several club sources expect the player’s camp to request a new round of talks very soon.
Such are the perks of becoming the football world’s summer sensation — and a truly fundamental figure in Barcelona’s hopes to return to the elite sooner rather than later.
(Top photo: Manuel Queimadelos/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)