Lamine Yamal

 


Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana (born 13 July 2007) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a right winger for La Liga club Barcelona and the Spain national team. Known for his pace, dribbling, passing, crossing ability, and ability to strike powerful long-range shots, he is widely regarded as one of the best young footballers in the world.



Early life

Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana was born on 13 July 2007 in Esplugues de Llobregat, in the Barcelona metropolitan area in Catalonia,  to waitress Sheila Ebana and building painter Mounir Nasraoui. Yamal's mother was born in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, and his father is from Larache, Morocco. 

His parents separated when Yamal was three, although both remained present through his childhood.  The family had lived in Mataró, but around the time of his parents' separation, Yamal's mother moved to Granollers, where Yamal started playing football at the local club La Torreta at the age of four.  He would alternate between both cities to spend time with his parents.  With his father in Mataró, Yamal grew up in Rocafonda, a neighbourhood described by El País as "forgotten, isolated and stigmatized"; he celebrates goals by making a gesture of the number 304, the last digits of the local postcode 08304. Following his success, his popularisation of the number has been credited with bringing pride and recognition to the working class community of Rocafonda.

At six years of age, Yamal was scouted by Barcelona and was invited to training sessions at La Masia, signing for the club in 2014 and moving to Barcelona to live and train at the academy.

Club career

Youth career

Growing up through the youth ranks of La Masia, Yamal was soon viewed as one of the academy's best prospects.  Initially added to the Juvenil A team – already above his age grade – for the 2022–23 season,  Yamal was selected by Xavi to train with the first team along with other youngsters in early September 2022. 

 While still yet to sign his first professional contract with the club, he appeared to be one of the academy members to most impress the coach.

Yamal made his first team debut on 29 April 2023, replacing Gavi in the 83rd minute of a 4–0 victory against Real Betis in La Liga, in which he registered a shot on target and became not only the fifth youngest player in La Liga's history at 15 years, 9 months, and 16 days old,  but also the youngest to appear for Barcelona's first team since the 15-year-old Armando Sagi in 1922, over a century before. 

 He won his first title with Barça on 14 May 2023, having been part of the squad that won the 2022–23 La Liga. 

 Despite this, he missed the title celebration the following week due to international duty with Spain.


International career

Catalonia

Youth

Yamal represented the youth sections of the Catalonia national football team from a young age, and was made a captain when he was 11 years old. He was captain throughout his time playing for the under-12, under-14 and under-16 teams.

In November 2022, Yamal scored an impressive solo goal in a match against Castile and León, and later that month he converted a penalty, provided the assist for Catalonia's second goal, and received a red card in a 2–2 draw with Aragon that sent Catalonia through to the "Fase d'Or" of the 2022–23 Spanish regional team championship.Yamal was not called up to the squad for the Fase d'Or in 2023

Spain

Youth

Yamal was a youth international for Spain, having played for the Spanish U15 and U16 squads.

In 2023, he represented Spain's U17 side in the 2023 European U17 Championship with Yamal scoring 4 goals during the tournament. Spain went all the way to the semi-finals where they were knocked out by France following a 3–1 defeat.

Senior

At the age of 16 years and 50 days, Yamal received his first senior international call-up on 1 September 2023 by coach Luis de la Fuente for the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifiers against Georgia and Cyprus, and made his senior debut against the former opponent on 8 September 2023, scoring in the 74th minute of a 7–1 victory. At the age of 16 years and 57 days old, he became the youngest player and goalscorer for Spain, breaking records held by Gavi who debuted aged 17 years, 62 days and scored aged 17 years, 304 days. Apart from this, Yamal became the youngest goalscorer in a Euro qualifying match, overtaking Welsh footballer Gareth Bale who scored at the age of 17 years, 83 days old. Yamal was recalled to the Spanish squad in October 2023 for the remaining Euro qualifying matches against Scotland and Norway.  Spain won both matches to qualify for Euro 2024.

On 7 June 2024, Yamal was selected in the 26-man squad for the tournament. On 15 June, he made his debut in the European Championship against Croatia, becoming the youngest player to feature in the tournament, aged 16 years and 338 days, breaking the previous record of Poland's Kacper Kozłowski. During the match against Croatia he also became the youngest player to provide an assist, setting up Dani Carvajal's goal in a 3–0 victory.  In the round of 16 match against Georgia, he became the youngest player to feature in the knockout phase, breaking Jude Bellingham's record, in addition to providing another assist in a 4–1 victory.

He again provided a vital assist against Germany in a 2–1 quarter-final win, and tied a Spanish record for having three assists in the same edition of the European Championship (after Cesc Fàbregas in 2008, David Silva in 2012 and Dani Olmo in 2020). He scored Spain's first goal in the 2–1 semi-final victory against France on 9 July, with a curling strike from outside the penalty area, which won goal of the tournament  becoming youngest goalscorer in the history of the Euros four days before his 17th birthday,  and more than a year younger than the previous record holder Johan Vonlanthen. 

At the end of UEFA Euro 2024, Yamal was named Young Player of the Tournament. Spain's 2–1 victory against England in the Euro 2024 final made him the youngest player to win the Euros. He assisted fellow winger Nico Williams for Spain's first goal in the final, subsequently becoming the youngest player to register a goal involvement in a major tournament final and becoming joint holder for the most assists in a single euro tournament with 4 assists.

Style of play

A left-footed forward with excellent passing, and chance-creating abilities, Yamal is able to play either as a centre-forward, an attacking midfielder or a winger, notably on the right flank. As a right-winger, the majority of the time he likes to play with his left foot; he also has the ability to curve the ball to the post.

Yamal had a notable performance in the UEFA Euro 2024, scoring a goal against France in the semi-finals and providing 4 assists against several teams, including Croatia, Georgia, Germany, and England. In this tournament, Yamal showcased his proficiency in creating chances by putting crosses towards the far-post and also his shot-taking and curling ability from distance.

With his technical profile, Yamal was compared to former Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi, like many La Masia products before him. Yamal has also cited former Barcelona player Neymar as a major influence on his own playing style.

Personal life

On 14 August 2024, it was reported by La Vanguardia that Yamal's father, Mounir Nasraoui, had been stabbed in a car park in Mataró. It was later reported that Nasraoui was in hospital in a stable condition. He wrote on Instagram that he was feeling better. Police arrested four people involved in the attack. On 17 August, Nasraoui was discharged from the hospital.


Honours

Barcelona

Spain

Individual

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Through his philosophy and actions, Ratan Tata demonstrated that it is possible to be successful even while being socially conscious and unflinchingly adhering to ethical standards Photograph-ARVIND YADAV/HT

Writing anything about Ratan Naval Tata can be both easy and daunting. It is easy because if you list out the qualities that a good man should possess, most likely, you would find all of them in him. Difficult it would be because there are very different layers of personality traits in the man that are tough to segregate. But their aggregate makes him unique, for his persona housed characteristics of opposing polarities that integrated seamlessly: For instance, compassion and aggression (in business).

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Perhaps, Winston Churchill’s description of the erstwhile USSR — “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” — may be appropriate to describe the titan, though not in the pejorative sense it was used by the British statesman.

The impression of being an imperceptible personality stuck to him as unlike other leaders, political or industrial, Ratan Tata was a very reticent man. It both worked to his disadvantage and advantage. His detractors dismissed him as an unknown entity because he was not as boastful as leaders generally are. But most criticisms against him withered away in the overwhelming exuberance of loyalty and admiration he earned, not commanded.

The CEO of a company whose family has been running a dealership of Jaguar and Land Rover in New York since 1938 shared with me his interesting perception of Tata. In his telling, the Indian business leaders was often dismissed as a shy individual. He was different from the typical heads of multinationals who are “hard-charging go-getters, fast-paced and a kind of removed, cold guys.” But Ratan Tata was far from being “removed” or “cold”. He was more effective and successful than his contemporaries, he added.

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Ratan Tata was empathetic, compassionate, polite and kind; particularly so with employees. His concern was not, however, fettered by geographical considerations.

His universal concern suprised many as it did after the Tata Group acquired the US-based General Chemical Industrial Products for $1.01 billion in 2008. When he was asked how he would leverage the business opportunities the recession-hit US offered Indian industrialists, Ratan Tata’s reply was unmistakable for its import. He said that the policy should “not be aggressive and alien to the kind of pain” that the US was experiencing and that it should be used “to the benefit of US companies without in fact taking jobs away from them”.

At home in India, his deep concern for the welfare of the employees of the group made him a leader for whom they would make any sacrifice. He did not have to demand their dedication — it came naturally to them. A Tata veteran spoke to me about the demands made on the employees in the 1990s to revive Tisco (now Tata Steel) and how they collectively rose to the occasion. The “most touching thing” was that “everyone was working for RNT”. They were driven by the overwhelming thought: “We can’t let him down.” He added that “Ratan did not have to demand it, the goodness of his personality won him unflinching loyalty.” “We did things for him. It was personal loyalty,” he added.

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The deep concern for the welfare of the employees was in several ways deeper than what the founder of the group, Jamsetji Tata, had famously demonstrated. Not many would be aware that even when he had not grown much in stature in the group, in the 1980s, he fought against the shutting down of the Empress Mills at Nagpur, the first enterprise established by Jamsetji. He did so, as it threatened to render over 5,000 employees jobless. He opposed the stalwarts of the Tata Group, including JRD, his mentor, in his effort to find ways to rehabilitate the affected workers.

When he failed, he told an interviewer: “I was so disgusted by that decision (to shut down the company) that when I got my annual bonus from the Tatas, I gave it to the officers of the company… These were perfectly blameless people who now had lost their jobs through no fault of theirs because of a bad corporate decision. They had homes to run and children to educate.”

Ratan Tata’s philosophy, both personal and business, rested on his conviction that societal goals cannot be sacrificed at the altar of commercial interests. The Nano car project (undertaken to provide safe transport for middle-class families), the Save the Whale Shark campaign (this fish, caught in large numbers along the Gujarat coast, was declared an endangered species in 2001), the coal liquefaction project to be taken up in collaboration with Sasol of South Africa (as a means to find cheaper oil), and the Mundra power project (an ultra-mega project, he thought, was necessary to achieve India’s targeted growth rate and the need to the group to demonstrate leadership), are a few examples. He told the managing directors (MD) of several Tata companies: “We need to do this (take up projects for the social cause) because the country requires it.” Extending the trusteeship principle, under the aegis of Tata Trusts, he steered projects that were less glamorous but benefited society.

He collaborated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to introduce low-cost MRI machines to make diagnosis affordable to the larger population of the country. He worked with the University of San Diego to modify the mosquito DNA to prevent them from carrying pathogens. The list is long and very impressive.

As an adjunct, fighting corruption and cronyism became a priority of his. It mattered little to him that in the process he was missing business opportunities. He said: “If we had compromised, we could have done much better, grown much faster, and perhaps been regarded as much more successful in the pure business sense. But we would have lost the one differentiation that this group has against others in the country. We would have been just another venal business house.”

When Tisco was confronted with a demand to pay ₹4 crore to get approvals for certain mines, Ratan Tata refused and lost minerals worth nearly ₹1,000 crore. But “that is Ratan Tata”, said the MD of the company. The loss of the mines did not worry him. His dream was to create an egalitarian society free of crony capitalism and prejudices. He said: “I’d say my greatest desire as an Indian is to be proud of my country because it is an equal opportunity nation.”

Through his philosophy and actions, he demonstrated that it is possible to be successful even while being socially conscious and unflinchingly adhering to ethical standards. It has made him a lodestar for the nation and future generations.

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