Barcelona’s plot to seduce Lamine Yamal
The player’s father, a Madrid fan, has been invited to the Bernabéu VIP lounge a couple of times. Barça wants to secure a new contract.
On Saturday, Lamine Yamal Nasraouri Ebana, aged 15 years and 290 days old, came on for the final few minutes of Barcelona’s Week 32 league meeting with Betis. In doing so, he became the youngest player to debut for Barcelona in the club’s history.
In terms of the youngest players to debut in LaLiga, Yamal, who was born in Esplugues de Llobregat to a Moroccan father and a Guinean mother, is fifth in the ranking
Youngest players to debut in LaLiga
- 15 years, 219 days Luka Romero (Mallorca)
- 15 years, 255 days Sansón (Celta)
- 15 years, 288 days Pedro Irastorza (Real Sociedad)
- 15 years, 289 days Óscar Ramón Pellicer (Zaragoza)
- 15 years, 290 days Lamine Yamal Nasraouri Ebana (Barcelona)
That Xavi decided to hand Yamal his senior debut at such an early age is a reflection of the teenager’s undeniable quality, but also the need to signal to the player that they believe he is going to be important for Barcelona in the future. A number of clubs have taken an interest in him and the fact that his father is an unapologetic Real Madrid fan, who has even been seen proudly wearing a white Madrid shirt during visits to the Ciutat Esportiva and who has been personally invited by Florentino Pérez a couple of times to the VIP lounge at the Bernabéu. Madrid are one of the clubs who have taken note of the youngster which is why Barça are so keen for him to establish himself. They feel he is a promise who is destined to mark an era at the club.
“Since he joined the club at the age of seven, reports always placed him among the three footballers with the most chances of making it to the first team,” recalls the former manager responsible for grassroots football Xavi Vilajoana, who was a candidate for the presidency in 2020.
Other people who have close ties with Lamine enthuse that ”he’s a good kid; he was still only young but his environment is something special and that is why we decided to enroll him in La Masia, where everyone considers him a very good team mate”.
However, Barça were obliged to punish the teenager with a four-game ban for indiscipline - an incident which also involved a player from Real Madrid and another from Atlético when all three were called up for Spain’s Under-17s in February. Barcelona were the only club to issue a sanction.
Handing Lamine his debut is part of a strategy to ensure that his contract, (which is due to be renewed) pleases both the player’s family and his new agent, Jorge Mendes. The teen, who wears the No.41 shirt, has been included in Xavi’s squad for Tuesday’s league game against Osasuna.