Lamine Yamal approaches field 9 of the FC Barcelona sports city. Her smile with her braces, that typical teenage dental appliance, reminds us that despite playing with the first team, she is still 16 years old. She poses naturally for the La Vanguardia photographer. For years at La Masia she has been prepared to take on this type of reporting. Today is a journey to its origins. “Yes, this is my neighborhood,” he proudly points out when we show him the photos in this report. “I went last week,” he adds.
Lamine Yamal refers to the Rocafonda neighborhood, in Mataró. Every time he scores a goal he celebrates by drawing the figure 304 with his fingers, the last three digits of the postal code (08304). With 11,000 registered inhabitants, it is estimated that about 2,000 are children whose parents emigrated from North Africa. The humble neighborhood breathes football from all sides. When school ends, it is common to see many boys and girls playing soccer on a cement field. But there are hardly any Barça shirts. Those from Morocco and also those from Real Madrid play here. There is a boy who wears Messi's shirt. But that of the Argentine team. “I know Lamine,” they say while they stamp a ball – from Espanyol – on a wall where you can read graffiti with the word Rocafonda.
The origins of the current Barcelona player, son of Mounir Nasraoui (Morocco) and Sheila Ebana (Equatorial Guinea), are explained because his paternal grandmother, Fátima, left Tangier more than 30 years ago to try her luck in Spain. She went to Madrid to take care of a man. And when he died he settled in Catalonia. She always boasts that she achieved it with the papers in order," points out Abdelhak, a friend of the family who owns a bedding store in Plaza Joan XXIII. "She also says that she was able to bring her four children and her Three daughters. He is now 65 years old, she has retired,” he adds. And grandpa? , we consulted him. “He never talks about him,” he says. “But to me she is like my mother. He gave me a Lamine Yamal shirt with the number 41. The one from the debut against Betis," he adds while showing us the photo with the elastic saved in the Important folder on his phone. "I always told Mounir that he had to take care of his son. That he was going to go far,” Abdelhak recalls.
In the same square, very close to Abdelhak's store, is the apartment where Lamine Yamal lived with her parents, her grandmother Fatima and also with her uncle Abdul, one of Mounir's brothers. She has had four children. Nine people slept on the first floor. Abdul has been the owner of the Arabica Bakery for five years, located very close to the soccer field. A photo of Lamine Yamal appears on the sign from day one. Furthermore, just a month ago the artist Antonio Moreno drew a mural on the establishment's shutters with the youth player dressed in Blaugrana. Above are three flags. The Spanish, the Moroccan and the Equatorial Guinean. “Because of his maternal and paternal origins,” explains Abdul.
Lamine's uncle doesn't like to delve too deeply into his nephew's future. “He is happy with Xavi. But we must be patient,” he explains behind the counter. Abdul will go with Lamine's father to see the classic against Real Madrid. “I am from Madrid. I will have to sit well in the chair because I am in the culé zone,” he jokes. He's not the only one. The whole family sympathized with the white team. “But now we are going with my nephew,” adds Abdul, who also supported Lamine Yamal when he decided to play for the Spanish team and rule out Morocco. “In the end Lamine was born here. He has gone to Morocco once,” he explains before answering the phone. A client calls him to order bread for the next day.
We leave the bakery. It's almost five in the afternoon and the atmosphere is starting to get busy in the streets. We met Rocío Escandell, president of the Rocafonda Neighborhood Association, who has lived in the neighborhood for 32 years. “Rocafonda is a humble neighborhood. With people looking to get ahead. And the case of Lamine Yamal is a positive message,” explains Rocío. She also admits that there have been certain episodes of crime. Housing occupancy rates are also part of the daily life of the neighborhood. But the president regrets that this stigmatizes the entire community.
Rocío is from the same generation as Mounir, father of Lamine Yamal. “The entire group of friends spent weekend afternoons eating pipes in Plaza Colombia. There are many bars there with friends who accompany you to Montjuïc,” she reveals. They all maintain that Mounir's father, who has a nervous nature, has calmed down in recent years. He before he separated. The now ex-married couple signed the divorce in 2009. His mother, Sheila, requested a transfer from McDonald's in Mataró to Granollers and signed up for her son to play soccer at CF La Torreta where he enjoyed the ball from 2009 to 2014. “ We help them in everything. We have always adapted to the families' times to pay the fees,” explains coordinator Inocente Díaz. Popularly known as Kubala, he continues to have contact with Lamine Yamal, who calls him the boss. “In the summer he will come to inaugurate a campus that will bear his name,” he says proudly. Lamine Yamal confirmed the news in the photo session.
In the afternoons, when his mother went to pick him up from the club, she took him for a snack at the La Sorpresa churrería, in the center of Granollers. While he waited, Lamine kicked the ball into the wall of the house opposite. The place, which has been serving churros for 70 years, is owned by Rafa Rodríguez, former president of CF La Torreta when Lamine left for Barça.
“Espanyol also loved him. They brought a proposal in this folder. Here we keep his first inscription with us,” says Díez as he shows Lamine's first token with La Torreta. “His father said that he wanted to offer him to Real Madrid,” he adds. But in April 2014 Barcelona entered the scene. “Isidre Gil, a scout who has been searching for talent for Barça for 25 years, warned us,” says Jordi Roura, former La Masia coordinator.
“Lamine Yamal passed the tests and chose Barça,” says the current president of La Torreta, Jordi Vizcaíno, while serving coffees to the parents who come to see their children. He then encourages himself with Kubala to play table football. Both are fighting to see who takes charge of Barcelona. They are also from Real Madrid. “But we are happy about Lamine's successes at Barça,” they add.
“In his first game he already scored two goals. “It is the talent of those who grow up on the street,” says Jordi Font, his coach when he was a Barcelona player. “When you see him you already think that he is one of those who should make it to the first team but you never know. Adolescence, the family environment... it is difficult to foresee,” he emphasizes. For this reason, when she finished primary school at the Escola Pereanton in Granollers, Barcelona decided that Lamine Yamal would come to live at La Masia.
The Blaugrana pearl also caught the attention of the RFEF. “He has taken on everything with incredible naturalness,” Francis Hernández, technical director and coordinator of the national teams who, faced with the siren song of Morocco, traveled to Barcelona, tells this newspaper. together with Tito Blanco to convince him that, after going through the youth ranks, he should bet on the Spanish team. “We made him a proposal for the future. “We made a commitment to him and to his family,” he adds. In this process of growth, Lamine Yamal lived a chapter from which she learned, improved and matured. He was called off by Julen Guerrero, national under-17 coach, for an act of indiscipline along with two other footballers. “We all make mistakes at 15 years old. This helped him mature more. He is a great guy,” insists Francis.
Lamine Yamal will play his first classic with the first team tomorrow. A challenge that doesn't scare you at all. Quite the opposite. After the photos with La Vanguardia, a session to which she arrives with British punctuality, she leaves smiling to continue working.
