At just 16 years and 38 days old, Lamine Yamal made history at FC Barcelona. Last Sunday, in the match that Barça played against Cádiz, the winger became the youngest player in the club's history to start a league match. On September 1, he will take another step in his meteoric evolution as he will receive a call from the Spanish coach Luis de la Fuente who will summon him for the two qualifying matches for the Eurocup in Germany 2024 that the absolute Spanish team will play first against Georgia on September 8 at 6:00 p.m. and then against Cyprus on September 12 at 8:45 p.m.
At just 16 years old, if Lamine Yamal makes his debut, he will become the youngest footballer to have minutes with the senior team, surpassing another Barça player, Gavi, who made his debut at 17 years and 62 days.
The agreement with Lamine Yamal was sealed this Tuesday morning in Barcelona. It was Tito Blanco, RFEF grassroots football coordinator, and Francis Hernández, technical director and coordinator of national teams who traveled to the Catalan capital to meet the player in a Barcelona restaurant. Before they did it with Deco, the new sports director of Barcelona, in the sports city.
The objective was to treat his landing to the absolute Spanish team that Luis de la Fuente trains and that next week, specifically on September 1, he will give the list of summoned for the two official qualifying matches for the Eurocup in Germany 2024: Georgia-Spain (September 8 at 6:00 p.m.) and Spain-Cyprus (September 12 at 8:45 p.m.). In the RFEF's plans, the plan for the player to play with the U-17s in the World Cup that will be held in Indonesia in November is maintained. In the case of playing the championship until the end, they would lose 4 League games and 2 Champions League games.
Spain has wanted to ensure in this way the presence of the youth squad with the selection. Lamine Yamal was born in Spain but is the son of a Moroccan father and an Equatorial Guinean mother. If Lamine Yamal makes his official debut with Spain, he would automatically be ruled out, at least in the short term, to be called up with both teams. Especially that of Morocco, who was already interested in convincing him via his Federation and with whom Lamine Yamal enjoyed seeing her in the last World Cup that was held in Qatar, reaching the semifinals.
It is not the first time that the RFEF has acted to ensure the presence of talents who could choose to play with another Federation due to their family origins. He acted immediately by calling up Munir when he made his Barça debut in 2014. However, he only played a few minutes against Macedonia. After years of battle and supported by Morocco throughout the process, the attacker received the green light in 2021 from FIFA to be able to play with Morocco.
As a result of his case and that of many other footballers, now the rules of the highest football body are more flexible. A player may play with another national team provided that they have not played more than three matches with the national team, that they have not played World Cup or Confederations Cup matches, that three years have passed since the last call, that they have not played a match with the 21 years old with the under-21 team.
Spain also wanted to do the same with Abde but the winger opted for Morocco with whom he played in the last World Cup in Qatar. Precisely the Moroccan winger discussed his future this morning in the Barcelona sports city. His agent Javier Garrido met with the sports leadership who told him that the player is not transferable. Xavi is counting on him and, except for surprise, he will not leave. At the moment he has 66 minutes played.
Abde, who has rejected offers from clubs such as Leverkusen, has also received strong interest from Betis, whose sports director is Ramon Planes, the person who signed him for Barcelona when he played for Hercules and with whom he maintains a very good relationship. relationship. Although the Andalusian club also has registration problems -Héctor Bellerín and Marc Bartra will be registered this week-, sources from the Andalusian club assure that they are still pending Abde.
