In the pre-match warm-ups, Lamine Yamal kept his cool under a warm afternoon sun. His close control was neat, a high ball tamed elegantly with the outside of his left boot. It tends to be the left boot if there is a choice for Lamine. In front of more than 80,000 curious spectators, the kid was not going to take too many unnecessary risks.
He is only a kid, as the manager of Barcelona, Xavi, was eager to emphasise ahead of Sunday’s Camp Nou meeting against Atletico Madrid. Quite a collision for a 15-year-old to be introduced. Lamine’s tender age set a record – the youngest player ever called into a Barca first-team squad for a senior fixture.
When Lamine took up his seat on the bench, his fellow substitutes included Jordi Alba - 91 caps for Spain, European Championship and Champions League winner, and, at 34, almost two decades his elder. Alongside him was also Ansu Fati, who three-and-a-half years ago was making his Barcelona debut at 16, a fellow prodigy whose career timeline Lamine is already mimicking.
La Masia, the celebrated Barcelona academy through which Lionel Messi, Xavi himself and, before them, Pep Guardiola learnt to be footballers, prizes its reputation for nurturing exceptional talent. Every so often, a fast-tracked promotion endorses that fame and, as with Ansu, a starlet is rashly labelled ‘The New Messi’.
Lamine is the latest, and although he was not called off the bench as Barcelona defended their narrow 1-0 victory over Atletico, every indication is that he will make a landmark debut in what remains of the season. Barca, who hold an 11-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid with eight fixtures to go, should clinch the title with time left to experiment and to stimulate the dreams of younger players.
The club want Lamine to feel he belongs, because, even now, he is approaching a major crossroads. When he turns 16, in July, he can sign his first grown-up contract with Barcelona. He could also leave in 2024. The options awaiting him are multiple.
He has recently changed agent, made aware that a number of clubs in Europe are keen on snatching him away from Barcelona, where he has been enrolled since he was seven.
Further ahead, he has choices for his senior international future. He was born in Spain, just outside Barcelona, to a Moroccan father and a mother from Equatorial Guinea. It makes him eligible for three countries. He has represented Spain at under-19 level and lower age-group categories but, not until he has won senior competitive caps does he have to commit to one nation.
The Moroccan Federation have let their interest be known and carry convincing arguments to any ambitious player who watched the Atlas Lions reach a World Cup semi-final in December, eliminating Spain on the way.
Xavi insists Lamine’s call-up to Barca’s first-team training and then into the weekend’s match day squad has not been accelerated by concerns the player might be tempted to move. “I’m not thinking about contractual issues,” said the manager. “We’ve been monitoring him for a while and he’s convinced us.”
Likewise the coaches who oversee the club’s internal development paths. Lamine, tall and rangy, comfortable operating on the wing, in the middle of the forward line or in attacking midfield, has leapfrogged various age-group levels at la Masia to consistently be playing alongside older teenagers. His jump to the first-team squad has already bypassed promotion to Barcelona B, the reserve team.
“He’s someone who could define an era at this club,” enthused Xavi, “and we had no concerns about calling him up. He has natural talent, he’s daring and he can help us, however young he is.
“Youngsters these days tend to have great confidence,” added Xavi. “I look at them and think it is very different from my day. They’re fearless.” Xavi, who made his senior Barca debu 25 years ago aged 18, sees Lamine’s cockiness expressed in a readiness to shoot from distance, a relish for one-on-one duels, a belief he can dribble past any marker.
In time, his coaches want his reflex instinct to cut on to his left foot to become less predictable to markers, but they see ample time ahead for him to finesse his game.
The hope is Lamine envisages learning and maturing at Barca, where under Xavi’s coaching, the midfielders Gavi and Pedri established themselves as first-team regulars while in their teens, and where Ansu made his precious breakthrough. The hope in Rabat is that he gradually comes to see his best national team future with Morocco.
