Lamine Yamal retired unwell against Porto. Almost no one found out. He left the field, went to the locker room and did not appear for the next five minutes. His departure went unnoticed by the public, journalists and a good number of players. Porto did not know that they were playing against 10 and Barça believed they were playing with 11. Xavi deduced that Lamine would return soon or he did not detect the player's absence either. It took him several minutes to replace him. It was one of those rare cases with which football surprises us. That it happened in a thunder match made it more extravagant.
Whatever the reason for the indisposition, from the outside it seemed that Lamine Yamal had reason to feel bad, as if the development of the match had favored general unrest and then the squeeze. Once again, the young Barça phenomenon felt marginalized on the field, not in physical terms, as he obediently took his place on the right wing, but in the structure of the game. Barça forgot about Lamine Yamal and it is not the first time this has happened. So far, the team pulls on him more when the games get tough. Against Celta, with a two-goal deficit and the end of the match very close, Barça turned to Lamine with the desirable frequency. He needed overflow, creativity, to change the pace of the match, which was going down the drain. Once again, Lamine was up to the task. Barça turned the game around in eight minutes and the boy's contribution was essential.
In Porto, Xavi lined him up with the starters. He is concerned about the care of the player, a 16-year-old teenager who is in the process of development. Lamine has taken the unusual opportunity that football has offered him by the lapel, but football has also taken Lamine by the lapel. He subjects him to fearsome challenges. Any 15 or 16 year old kid will be terrified if he has many of the best in the world around him and 80,000 people examining him minute after minute from the stands.
It is not advisable to establish forecasts about youth phenomena. Football is full of frustrating and sometimes dramatic cases. It is easy to appreciate the importance of Lamine Yamal at Barça, despite his young age. Therefore, we are faced with a player who performs as if he had been on the team all his life, a small miracle that no one knows how long it will last. One, five, ten or 15 years, who knows.
Lamine Yamal plays wonderfully and does so with an excitement that infects the team and the fans. If you let go of this emotional factor, you will run the risk of becoming complacent or exhausted. There are several ways to lose that necessary extra for such a young player: staying on the bench more times than necessary, feeling that the originality of youth weighs against you, suffering an injury that takes you off the path you have taken, and getting bored in the game. field. If any of these problems occur, a great player project can become any good footballer. In Porto, the variant of boredom was detected. Being bored can be halfway tolerable for an adult. For a youth, no. Teenagers are in and out of the world to enjoy. The ball barely passed Lamine Yamal's feet in Do Dragão, as has happened in some of the last League games.
Lamine is where he needs to be, but the team doesn't see him. It is not a subjective perception. In Porto she raised her arms in despair several times. She asked for passes that never came to her. Barça looked the other way and Lamine's frustration became so evident that no one was surprised that she became unwell. They were giving him a bad life, we don't really know why: either due to lack of collective intelligence to find him or because of no attention.
