“Lamine Yamal: Barcelona’s Young Prodigy and the Proud Neighborhood That Shaped Him”

 

 

Lamine Yamal grew raised in Rocafonda, if one can sаy that about a sixteen-year-old.

The Barcelona winger’s football career has advanced at an incredible rate since making his first-team debut on April 29 at the age of fifteen years, nine months, and sixteen days against Real Betis.

 

That night, he made history as the team’s youngest player since La Liga’s founding more than 90 years ago. Earlier in the month, on October 8, he scored the competition’s youngest goal in the 2-2 draw with Granada, making him the youngest goalscorer in history.

 

Having watched him play, everyone knows he will take the hype in his stride this weekend in El Clasico, where Real Madrid will view him as one of their most dangerous possible opponents. Naturally, in discussions about the need to properly foster his development at Barcelona and elsewhere, his skill has been likened to Lionel Messi’s.

They have always recognized he is unique in Rocafonda, and he has a deep connection to the area. His “family and emotional core,” as one of the residents describes it.

A neighborhood called Rocafonda is a section of Mataro, a town 40 minutes up the coast from Barcelona with a population of about 120,000. Geographically speaking, it is in a prime location, however it is a modest neighborhood surrounded by wealthy cities.

 

On a Sunday afternoon, the Mediterranean Sea gleams a particularly beautiful turquoise in the sunlight as one looks down from its hills. October, but many are still wearing short sleeves—a temperature more suited for August than for fall—while strolling around the streets.

Parents and kids are congregating near the neighborhood municipal sports field, eager to watch Rocafonda’s Juvenil A (under-17) team play. At non-stand-equipped facilities, spectators often approach and rest their elbows on the bars beside the field, a scene that is emblematic of Spanish regional football.

Yamal never got to use this stadium for a game. However, he began his career on the nearby concrete football court, where kids who can’t afford to join nearby clubs usually play. It is one of the neighborhood’s main hubs, with the word “Rocafonda” spray-painted on top of it.

There’s additional graffiti, but it only has the number 304 on it. It is everywhere—on trаsh cans, on walls. It alludes to the 08304 local postcode. Yamal gestured to the code, a sign of identification and belonging, as he celebrated his first goal for Barcelona.

More evidence of Yamal’s connection to this location can be found across the street at a tiny bakery owned by Abdul, one of his uncles and 23 cousins. The flags of Equatorial Guinea, where Yamal’s mother is from, Morocco, and Spain, the country of his birth, are displayed with a mural of Yamal wearing a Barcelona shirt at the entry.

With bags of chips, soft drinks, and freshly baked pastries all around them, Abdul and his son are patiently waiting for the rush to arrive. Ever since Yamal’s first-team debut for Barca, the bakery has grown even more packed than its advantageous location permits. Numerous kids who are hungry after playing football will soon rush here to purchаse their preferred food.

Fatima, Yamal’s grandma, shows up. She is quite sweet and small, and she is constantly appreciative of anyone who expresses interest in her grandson. Thirty-five years ago, she was the first to relocate her family from Morocco to Spain. She arrived first, by herself, and then brought her kids. Abdul has spent thirty years residing in Rocafonda.

Like Abdul and his kids, Fatima shared her grandson’s childhood with him. Together, they have grown up. However, at the age of three, Yamal’s parents divorced, and he briefly moved home with his mother Sheila in La Torreta, a neighborhood in Roca del Valles that is near Granollers, a city located north of Mataro.

One of the important figures in the turn Yamal’s destiny was to take, Inocente Diez, was introduced to by his mother at her new employment at a fast food restaurant.

From his days as a local football player, Diez was known as “Kubala” (after the Barcelona star Laszlo Kubala). He urged Sheila, Yamine’s mother, to register her son for La Torreta, the club where he was coordinator.

Diez tells The Athletic, “You could tell he was special.” Because it’s such a large industry, you never know what will happen at that age. But it appeared like a magic wand touched him.

“After he moved back to Mataro, he would frequently phone me to beg me to come pick him up in the car because his father was unable to go with him to training. We would always chat on the way there, and I would assure him that Barca would eventually come and sign him. He would always sаy, “No, no, no.”

He was a very reserved and bashful boy. He was pleasant and very sweet. He continues to occasionally visit me and listened to the advise I provided him. He still maintains a tight relationship with his former pals and is quite modest. He dislikes flaunting himself.Like they did with other kids, La Torreta provided financial support to Yamal and his family so they could play.

Scouts from nearby lower-league teams like Damm or UE Cornella, who aim to develop young players, were frequently spotted at games. Yet Yamal’s situation was unique. He headed directly to Barcelona.

According to the account, one day a gentleman observed Yamal from the stands and called Barca, telling them they had to give the man a chance. It only took him one, and he began training with them at the age of seven in 2014.Rocafonda had remained home to Yamal even if he played in La Torreta and attended school in Granollers. There, he established a life with his cousins and friends. That relationship persisted even after he relocated to live at Barcelona’s youth academy, which is located west of the city.

When he initially joined Barca, the team would give him and a few other kids a lift so they could make it to training during the week. He spent the weekends in La Torreta with his mother, who would take him to Barcelona matches in her car. One of his youth coaches, Jordi Font, would frequently pick him up in the wee hours of the morning when he was with his father, who did not own a car.”He usually spent the trips sleeping,” explains Font, the under-10 coach for Barca in 2016–17. Yamal was trained by Font. Children at that age find the movement of cars to be calming, and this was especially true during the times we had to travel. He reserved his chatter for his teammates. However, he was never really communicative.The neighborhood of Rocafonda was created mostly through new development in the 1970s. It was a typical working-class neighborhood for both Spanish citizens and those who had moved there for work.

That population has evolved over time. With time, the initial families left Rocafonda, and since many of the apartment buildings lacked elevators, senior residents eventually moved out. When it was first built, the area appeared to be a contemporary urban development in a city with a very old historical district, although certain buildings lack proper construction quality and have not undergone restorations. There are still some apartments without heat.

“It’s a neighborhood that could have been among the best in the city with different urban planning,” says Maria Majo, a Rocafonda Neighbourhood Association member and former teacher.

“There are a lot of opportunities here, but there are also a lot of restrictions.”

Because to squatters’ recent occupation of many abandoned houses and rumors of viоlence between rival gangs in various locations, Rocafonda has a reputation as a troublesome locality in the larger region. Although there occasionally be fights, the neighborhood is generally safe and has a large family population, according to the residents.

Majo states, “The human quality is very good, but the family and economic situations are sometimes very difficult.” Over her 41 years of employment, she witnessed firsthand how many residents of the neighborhood with less than ideal family circumstances went on to attend college.

She feels that Yamal has been an inspiration to many kids since he made his Barca debut since they have witnessed how hard work and perseverance have allowed him to create a prosperous future for himself.

Yamal’s life has been a tornado in the past few months. Compared to Messi, he has gone from being an unknown adolescent to a global celebrity.

He’s broken record after record: youngest player to play a century for Barca; youngest player in La Liga; youngest player to start a Champions League match; youngest player to represent Spain; and youngest player to score for Spain.

He is now a player that Xavi relies on. It’s not as though he seems out of place; the Spanish Football Federation hastened to grant him his international debut. He’s erased the memory of Ousmane Dembele in Barca supporters. At the tender age of sixteen (16), he marked his birthday in July.

Yamal’s unique connection to his childhood neighborhood is said to have played a significant role in this, according to his family and many who have closely followed his incredible climb. His uncle, grandma Fatima, and cousins are still here, despite the fact that his entire world has altered. Although his father no longer resides in Rocafonda, he frequently walks its streets. He frequently visits El Cordobes, a neighborhood pub that prominently features another Yamal Barca shirt.

Numerous individuals claiming to be acquainted with the football player emphasize his humility and how little, in spite of all, he has changed. They are aware that he still remembers the winding alleyways of Rocafonda, the scent of the sea, and the three numerals that make up his identity: zero, four, and three.