when he slotted home his first strike at the in Spain’s second outing of the campaign against Saudi Arabia. Just ten minutes into his full debut on football’s grandest stage, the mercurial wide man was already celebrating .
To mark the milestone, FIFA sat down with former Barça TV reporter Jaume Marcet and Barcelona youth coach Marc Serra, both of whom had the privilege of witnessing the first flashes of the phenomenon who has quickly become a mainstay of Luis de la Fuente’s squad.
“My first memory of Lamine is from a Barça U-8s game at Don Bosco," recalled Marcet. "There was this lad who bagged two goals, one of them a superb outside-of-the-foot finish to win the game."
Lots of prospects tend to turn heads at Spain’s top youth academies, but Yamal really stood out during his first showing in Blaugrana colours. Spain’s nimble number 19 was seven years old at the time. Now, less than 12 years later, he has a World Cup goal to his name.
“I caught my first glimpse of Lamine during a trial game on pitch 6 at Barcelona’s training complex,” said Serra, who is no stranger to seeing a steady stream of hopefuls auditioning for a place in Barça’s youth academy, where he oversees the 7-a-side programme.
“There was this kid who had something different about him. And we saw the attributes we’re always talking about, those traits that can’t really be taught. You either pick them up on the street or you’re just born with them,” added Serra.
Marcet underscored that Yamal was a level above the rest even as a boy: “He was so far ahead of the others, so staggering to watch, that you thought to yourself, ‘If he can just keep a fraction of that raw talent as he develops, he’s going to be absolutely unstoppable.’
“I always remember that my dad used to say to me, ‘You’ll never see another player like Johan Cruyff. Forget it.’ Those who saw Maradona used to say, ‘There’ll never be anyone like Diego.’ Then [Lionel] Messi came onto the scene and has been cast in the same light. Yet here we are again: the next creative genius – a magician – has emerged from La Masia once more.”
Reflecting on Yamal’s journey, Serra was categorical in how he views the precocious winger: “I just love watching the kid play – when he was younger, we used to see him doing things out on the pitch that we didn’t think possible for an 11- or 12-year-old. Now he’s 18 and still seeing the game in ways that we simply can’t.”
“For me, he’s the complete package. I don’t even think we’ve seen half of what Lamine is capable of,” Marcet declared.
Sources: FIFA Official
