It was perhaps inevitable that he’d mention his mum. One’s parents are a major part of one’s frame of reference, at the tender age of 16.
“It was my mum’s dream, so I’m really happy that my first goal came in a ,” Lamine Yamal told reporters at fulltime. A 16-year-old who fires his team into a final, thereby becoming the youngest goalscorer in the competition’s history, is after all still a 16-year-old. There have been breakout stars in the past, talented teenagers are nothing new. But the scale and pace of his ascent at Euro 2024 have been breathtaking, and the best may be yet to come.
When Yamal was substituted off in injury time, the whole stadium stood to applaud. It was a natural, heartfelt homage to a world-class display. Oddly, it was also a rare moment of respect from a crowd that had frequently given in to its ignoble impulses and threatened to spoil the party.
At one of those games with what you might call a largely ‘neutral’ crowd, tens of thousands of locals were anything but impartial. The target of the supporters’ ire was left back Marc Cucurella, perpetrator of an involuntary handball that went unpunished in the against . Was he shocked, when his name was read out during the pre-match line-ups, to hear a hail of whistles? Did he tire, at any point in the 90 minutes, of the inexhaustible crowd and its barrage of boos whenever he touched the ball?
“I don’t know, to be honest,” said Spain’s Rodri. “If you ask him, he probably doesn’t care much, he only cares that the team is through.”
“It’s shameful, no player deserves that,” said Spanish substitute Daniel Vivian. “Coming to a football stadium to boo someone shows a lack of respect, I can’t understand it at all.”
It was indeed both surprising and unedifying, and threatens to leave a sour taste at the end of a month in which Germany has more frequently shown itself to be graceful and hospitable. Asked by DW about the boos, Spain’s coach Luis de la Fuente spoke with an evenhandedness that the crowd denied his players.
“I don’t know why they booed (Cucurella), but the only thing that they did was to motivate him,” he said. “He’s a great professional, a really mature player, and he knew how to overcome the pressure.”
“Germany as a host country has been extraordinary and I know that the people who booed him don’t represent football or Germany as a nation,” the coach added.
In any case, the efforts of the hosts’ ghosts to muscle their way onto center stage were insufficient to steal the limelight. That belonged to the youngest player in the history of the competition, an individual who, while still too young to drive a car or vote in an election, appears to have unlimited capacity on the football pitch.
His goal was nothing short of sublime. A good 35 yards out, Yamal shimmied and tip-toed in front of Adrien Rabiot. Then, with supreme confidence, he treated himself to a few more square inches of space, barely bothered to look up, and fired a high-flying, fast-dipping shot into Mike Maignan’s top-right corner. Rarely does a goal recommend itself so instantly, so convincingly, for an individual accolade; it will be hard to see past this strike for goal of the tournament.
“When you shoot like that, you know where it’s going the moment it leaves your foot,” Yamal said after the match. “I don’t know if it was the best goal of the tournament, but it means the most to me, because getting to a final with the national team is something really special.”
Spain’s arrival in the final – despite the arguable injustice Germany suffered at their hands in the quarters – will be seen by many as a moral success. While teams like England, Portugal, and indeed France have turned enviably talented squads into uniformly languid performances, Spain alone have played fast-flowing, attractive football.
On this night they fielded a team of extremes in terms of age. Replacement right back Jesus Navas, the sole standing survivor of Spain’s 2010 World Cup winning squad, will celebrate his 39th birthday this year. Early on, he and right-sided center back Nacho, 34, were given a torrid time by the French front three. Unable to cope with the fury and pace of France’s attacks, Spain suffered an early setback when Randal Kolo Muani converted a well-placed Kylian Mbappe cross.
Step forward, standout star. Youngster Yamal rode to his team’s rescue with an outrageous equalizer. Instantly, the momentum was spun in Spain’s favor. Dani Olmo’s winner shortly afterwards, itself a solo triumph, would not have been possible without his junior teammate’s moment of inspiration.
Last week, Yamal’s father unearthed a remarkable set of photos from 2007, in which a newborn Lamine is bathed by a baby-faced Lionel Messi. Then 20, Messi’s future in football was already looking brilliant. The infant in his arms has now also attained the game’s highest level, arriving in a blaze of brilliant performances like this one. His victory, should Spain beat England or the Netherlands in Berlin, will be dedicated to his other parent. Sunday’s final will come a day after Yamal’s 17th birthday.
“I’ve already told my mum that if we win, she doesn’t have to get me anything,” he told reporters after the game. “Winning the final is more than enough, that would be incredible.”
Edited by: Chuck Penfold
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