Some players cannot be counted with numbers, but are told and passed down with words and, above all, with the emotions that they have been able to convey. And Lamine is one of these.
Giving him an award for “best young person of the year” is now an exercise in lexical modesty. Lamine Yamal has long since surpassed the age dimension of “secondary” awards: his is a talent that lives in the present, not a promise that looks to the future.
The Ballon d’Or and our Flashscore Award deservedly went to Ousmane Dembélé, but this does not change the fact that in the profound story of this season the feeling is that for Lamine certain awards have simply become insufficient to describe his impact.
He didn’t win the second Golden Boy only because the rules prevent it. On the other hand, he took the Kopa trophy for the second consecutive year, the first player to do so. A detail that says a lot about the dimensions of the phenomenon that we are lucky enough to admire “every damn Sunday”.
Not just numbers
The numbers certainly help to frame its impact, without, however, being able to fully describe its effects on the most loved and practiced sport in the world. With Barcelona, the growth was vertical: from 7 goals and 9 assists in the 2023-24 season in 50 appearances, he went to 18 goals and 25 assists in 55 games last campaign.
And current events push the bar even higher: in the first 20 matches of this season, in fact, Lamine Yamal has already scored 9 goals and 11 assists.
All this, despite having been living with stubborn groin pain for some time, probably destined to accompany the Catalan star for a long time yet, but which, for the moment, has not managed to reduce his light. Indeed, if anything it has strengthened the perception of greatness.
Sensory experience
But reducing Lamine Yamal to a sequence of figures would make us guilty of high treason before the supreme court of football. Its true unit of measurement, in fact, is the one that tries to quantify its impact on the emotions and moods of the fans.
It is in the left foot that seeks the intersection as if it were an inevitable destiny, in the dribbling that makes the defenders’ legs tremble, in the electric silence that crosses the Camp Nou when he receives the ball and the public holds its breath so as not to disturb his genius and enjoying his art not only with sight, but also with all the other senses. Yes, Lamine is a sensorial experience, a three Michelin star, whose presence on the pitch alone is worth the price of the ticket.
Rocafonda’s crack, in the same way, also personifies the fear that is felt in the opposing stands when he comes into possession of the ball, that sensation, that bad sensation that something irreparable is about to happen. And beware of provoking it!
The heir
We saw it at last year’s European Championship, when while still a minor he lit up Spain: only one goal, yes, but five assists and an enlightened and illuminating presence, culminating in the most eloquent response possible to Adrien Rabiot, with that golazo scored right in the face of the player who had criticized him the day before and which became the poster child of the tournament.
We saw it in the Clásicos, in the goals against Real Madrid (“he is the most overrated footballer in the world“, they had said about him in the capital) which are not just goals, but seem symbolic handovers. A bit as if Lionel Messi, whose number ’10’ shirt he has already inherited, is passing the baton to him directly. And if it is true that comparisons are always unpleasant, it is difficult to imagine a more worthy heir of Pulga than him.
And we saw it, finally, in the most important competition in the world: yes, even in the dramatic – for the blaugrana – double challenge against Inter, when only a prodigious Yann Sommer and a goal in full stoppage time from Acerbi denied him the possibility of launching the total challenge to the same Dembélé who then stole both the Champions League and the Ballon d’Or from him.
The legend of Lamine
But Lamine still has time to win and win it all again. What is certain is that this generation of Barça fans (and not only), one day, will tell their stories just like someone told them about Laszlo Kubala, Johan Cruyff, Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi.
And, when he does, with all due respect to statisticians, he will dedicate only a small part of his narrative to the goals scored or trophies won. Because certain players cannot be counted with numbers, but are told and passed down with words and, above all, with the emotions that they were able to convey. And, barring unforeseen circumstances, Lamine Yamal will not chase the legend of this sport for long, but will soon sit at the table where the legend is written.
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