From Rocafonda to rock star at the World Cup: The rise of Lamine Yamal

Lamine Yamal, braces and all, is already the face of soccer in Spain. Johnnie Izquierdo - FIFA via Getty Images The anticipation began to build as soon as the charter buses carrying the Spanish national team came into view. Hundreds of banner-toting, jersey-waving fans crammed against a chain-link fence across from the downtown Chattanooga Embassy Suites earlier this month, smartphones aloft, necks craned, feet on tiptoes.  While Spain's array of world-class players each received enthusiastic cheers and applause as they emerged from the bus, fans saved their most ear-splitting shrieks for international soccer's most electrifying young superstar. "Lamine! Lamine!" they chanted as 18-year-old phenom Lamine Yamal tipped his cap and waved politely before grabbing his luggage and disappearing through the hotel doors. "There were about 1,500 people there greeting the team, and I bet 1,000 of them were wearing Yamal jerseys," said former U.S. men's national team general manager Bill Nuttall, who was instrumental in positioning Chattanooga as a potential World Cup training base for Spain. "When Yamal got off the bus, it was like listening to a jet engine, there was so much screaming and yelling."  World Cup schedule | Group schedule, results | Standings The rockstar treatment that Yamal has received in Chattanooga is a testament to the Barcelona winger's global fame. A teenager who isn't yet licensed to drive a car or liberated from wearing braces has drawn frequent comparisons to another left-footed legend who emerged from Barcelona's academy. Many consider Yamal to be the heir apparent to Lionel Messi because of his blend of exquisite technique and jaw-dropping creativity with the ball at his feet.   Yamal is already the face of high-profile ad campaigns launched by Adidas, American Eagle and McDonald's. His 43.5 million Instagram followers are more than Shohei Ohtani, Patrick Mahomes and Roger Federer combined. Last weekend, a towering Powerade advertisement featuring Yamal went up on the side of a 42-story downtown hotel in Atlanta, where on Sunday the 18-year-old scored Spain’s first goal of this World Cup in a blowout win over Saudi Arabia. Days earlier, video clips of Yamal shopping at a Walmart in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, garnered millions of views on social media.  This World Cup could rocket Yamal to new levels of superstardom if he can help reigning European champion Spain lift another major trophy. On Sunday, in his return to the starting lineup after a torn left hamstring ended his club season in April, Yamal made an immediate impact, scoring just 10 minutes into Spain's game against Saudi Arabia. Goals are expected from Yamal, but this one provided a massive boost for the Spanish side after it couldn't find the net against tiny Cape Verde in a shocking 0-0 opener. "He is a player blessed by God. Football geniuses have something special, and he has it," Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said. "You can immediately see those kinds of footballers who are touched by magic that says: you are going to be special." Yamal is one of those players who seem to have been "touched by magic," de la Fuente told DAZN earlier this year. Or as Barcelona coach Hansi Flick put it last year , "I am convinced he will become one of the best players the football world has ever seen." From Messi to Yamal In fall 2007, 20-year-old Lionel Messi entered the visitor's locker room at Barcelona's stadium to participate in a photo shoot. Waiting for him inside was a mother and her infant son in a plastic bath tub. Sheila Ebana and her husband Mounir Nasraoui had previously entered a raffle to have their photo taken alongside a Barcelona player for a charity calendar benefiting UNICEF. When the young couple won, Ebana brought along 3-month-old Lamine. The photoshoot captured the attention of the world two years ago when Nasraoui posted to Instagram a picture of Messi and Ebana smiling at baby Lamine in a soapy bath. Nasraoui captioned the photo, "El comienzo de dos leyendas," which in English translates to "The beginning of two legends." View this post on Instagram Born to a Moroccan father and an Equatorial Guinean mother, Yamal grew up in a working-class community 20 miles up the coast from Barcelona. Rocafonda, a humble North African immigrant enclave in the city of Mataró, is a neighborhood described by Spanish newspaper El País as "forgotten, isolated, and stigmatized." Yamal started honing his skills on a concrete slab that, for kids in Rocafonda, doubles as a soccer pitch. It is here that he scored his first goals, here that he developed a knack for slyly dancing past opposing defenders with an array of tricks and flicks.  By age 4, Yamal displayed enough promise to earn an invitation to join local club La Torreta for free. It wasn't long before La Torreta youth coaches began telling club president Rafa Rodríguez Muñoz that he had to come watch this tiny little boy with dazzling talent. At age 4, Lamine Yamal was issued his first sports license to play for La Torreta. (Courtesy of Rafa Rodríguez Muñoz) "From the very beginning, he stood out as a player above all others his age and even those older than him," Rodríguez Muñoz told Yahoo Sports. "I think his greatest strengths were his speed with the ball, his dribbling skills, and his anticipation of the play. Without any doubt, he has always had a gift for playing football." In 2014, a La Torreta official told veteran Barcelona scout Isidre Gil about a promising 7-year-old who was making older kids look silly. Gil came out to watch Yamal play in person and instantly concluded Barcelona needed to make him a priority.   When Gil and fellow scout Oscar Hernandez discovered that regional rival Espanyol was also recruiting Yamal and was poised to strike a deal with La Torreta to sign him, they sought to accelerate Barcelona's recruitment. On Jan. 15, 2015, Hernandez sent an email to Marc Serra, a longtime youth coach and coordinator at Barcelona's famed La Masia academy, urging him to arrange a tryout for Yamal as soon as possible.  "We have to do this this week," Hernandez wrote, "since this club will sign a collaboration contract with Espanyol during the month of February." On April 29, 2023, Lamine Yamal made his Barcelona debut at just 15 years old. Eric Alonso via Getty Images 15 years, 9 months, 16 days Shortly afterward, Yamal participated in a training session with a team of players already part of Barcelona's youth system — a team of players that Rodríguez Muñoz said were one year older than him. Yamal shined in the tryout despite competing in borrowed cleats because he and his mother forgot his at home. "Barça had a fierce battle with Espanyol, who had already expressed their interest in including Lamine in their youth academy," Rodríguez Muñoz said. "He had a trial with RCD Espanyol before Barça, and Espanyol expressed their desire to sign him. Lamine chose FC Barcelona because of the way he was treated the day he trained at Barça's training ground and because he liked Barça at that age." Even at age 7, Yamal was already brave with the ball and difficult to dispossess, according to former La Masia academy director Albert Puig. As time went by, Yamal raced through the La Masia age categories faster than any of his peers, evolving from talented but unproven preteen, to potential first-team mainstay, to future superstar.  "He's a guy who made all the steps with creativity, maturity and happiness," Puig told Yahoo Sports. "Every day was better than the one before it." With Barcelona in financial crisis in the early 2020s and unable to afford signing established standouts, the club fast-tracked academy talent from La Masia to try to remain competitive.  Yamal was still a few months shy of his 16th birthday — 15 years, 9 months, 16 days to be exact — when he made his Barcelona debut in April 2023. On Sept. 8, 2023, Yamal became the youngest player ever to play for the Spanish national side and the country's youngest ever goalscorer. The following summer, Yamal emerged as a fixture in Spain's starting lineup and helped lead La Roja to a European Championship.  Yamal is now unquestionably the main attraction on a Spanish team loaded with elite players from some of the most accomplished clubs in the world. When Spain held a 45-minute open training session in Chattanooga earlier this month, more than 20,000 people entered a lottery for the chance to be among the 1,000 who won the right to attend and see Yamal in person. At the end of the training session, fans lined up along the back fence for photos and autographs. Among them was Nuttall's 12-year-old niece, who, according to her uncle, does not follow international soccer. Minutes later, Nuttall's niece returned, excitedly waving her phone. One of the Spanish players had grabbed the phone out of her hand and taken a selfie with her before returning it.  "Everyone says this guy is a big deal," Nuttall's niece told him. "I showed my friends and they were like, 'Woah!'" She showed Nuttall a selfie of her and a grinning Yamal. "That is gold, young lady," Nuttall told his niece with a chuckle. "You have 1,000 people here who would bite your hand off for that."