He's lefthanded. It's from the quarry. He is a forward, winger. He is a teenager. He is a promise and also a reality. He wears a high number but will soon have an important number. He is international. And he is from Barça. He is a gem that must be preserved but, above all, he must play because he is already decisive.
It is not Leo Messi, who marked an era, the man of all the club's records, who now watches everything from a distance, from Miami. The similarities are enormous, as are the differences. Because the first, the Argentine, never lived in the Masia residence like the Maresme one. And because comparison will destroy anyone. But Barcelona has found Lamine Yamal, another golden left foot, at home.
The boy, who had not yet been born in the 2006 Champions League final in Paris – which Messi did not play either due to injury – was the great Barcelona argument in Bilbao in the Cup, where the young people suddenly became older, out of obligation. and on its own merits.
Lamine Yamal was the protagonist, with a goal, with dribbling, facing with courage and running with solidarity. It was the light that should illuminate the path. And he was even able to finish off the lions before the cruel extra time reached, in which Barça's second title of the season slipped away. Two magnificent occasions in which the goal was too small.
The youth team was brilliant at Villamarín and three days later another great match was scored in San Mamés, two of the most traditional stadiums that create a cauldron atmosphere. He had only seen them on television and in video games but it didn't cut him.
In front of 52,000 spectators he scored the goal he had been dreaming of, a compendium of his virtues: imbalance, verticality and definition. He dribbled past Vesga and went into the area with the ball stuck to his foot, where Paredes was waiting for him. Four touches, cut and shot with his left foot, unstoppable for Agirrezabala. His third goal of the campaign. In his first appearance in San Mamés he became the youngest scorer in the Cup at 16 years and 195 days. Messi, without going any further, did not score in either his first or second visit to the Cathedral. He had to wait for the fifth, already in 2011.
His teammates, the professionals, the stars, look for him as a solution, because he contributes, because he has the skills and self-confidence to carry the team on his back. And to face the goalkeeper twice on two very clear occasions. He didn't get it right in those two head-to-heads in the second half. In the first, on a counterattack, assisted by Lewandowski, he hit it over the goal but did not find the goal. In the second, already in the 80th minute, he stole the ball from the defender, he dribbled past Agirrezabala but the ball was left to his right and the shot went over. Two stings to the illusion that he will surely regret, just as football will not forget the day that Lamine Yamal's left foot impressed in San Mamés.
