With the group stage over, it’s time for the evaluations. In all of them, Luis de la Fuente’s Spain stands out for its impeccable record. Three wins in three games, no goals conceded and, above all, a dazzling feeling of physical, technical and tactical superiority.e. A sensation that has dazzled Europe, especially in the match against Italy, the most aristocratic rival in the group. The display of Nico Williams and the self-confidence of Lamine Yamal have seduced rivals, fans and journalists. The praise of the Italians themselves is especially significant, despite losing only by an own goal by Calafiori, the new bello of the defense bluefell in love with the exuberance of the young Spanish wingers.
Galeano and “the children”
“They have the unconsciousness of children who play in the schoolyard”, “they do not hold back against rivals at the level of Croatia or Italy and it gives the impression that they continue playing with their friends”, “their impudence has been incorporated into the catalog of Spain, the self-confidence and one-on-one that add to its historic possession game”… “The children”, as more than one has described them for their insulting youth, especially in the case of Lamine Yamal, have left the football world stunned.
Days go by and Lamine, without having yet signed a performance as conclusive as Nico’s against Italy, He has digested his role as the star of the tournament at 16 years old with inexplicable naturalness. This teenager, who De la Fuente made his debut last October at 16 years and 50 days old, and who did so by scoring against Georgia in his debut, faces his opponents with blessed recklessness, not caring whether they are the Croatian Gvardiol or the experienced Jorginho. He only sees one opponent, a space behind him and a ball sewn to his left foot. It is a shame that Galeano left in 2015, because he would have written about Lamine and his precocity, as he did about Messi. Another left-handed person, another eternal child. “I like it, above all, because Messi doesn’t believe himself to be Messi, or at least he doesn’t believe himself to be Messi yet. I hope that Messi never believes himself to be Messi because that allows him to play with the joy of a neighborhood kid, as if he were a little kid. “He is the only player who makes me dream and love,” said Galeano, author of one of the most liturgical books in football literature: ‘Football in Sun and Shadow’.
Galeano even created a theory about the Rosario native: “I am the author of a theory about Messi, although it has no scientific basis. CI think Messi is like a unique case in the history of humanity, because he is someone capable of having a ball inside his foot. It is always said that Maradona had it tied up, but Messi has it inside his foot, and that is scientifically inexplicable, but you see that 7, 11, 22 rivals chase him to take the ball away from him and there is no way. Why? Because they look for it outside his foot, and it is inside. How can a ball fit inside his foot? It is an incomprehensible phenomenon, but it is the truth, he carries the ball inside, not outside. You will agree with me that Lamine belongs to the same lineage as Messi. It is not a comparison, it is a statement. Because Lamine doesn’t believe in Lamine either, which “allows him to play with the joy of a neighborhood kid,” and one would at times ‘support’ Galeano’s theory that Yamal carries the ball inside his foot.
This morning we spent some time with the Barcelona prodigy. He is the same age as my little son, Martín, who coincidentally also plays soccer and is also left-handed. And seeing him in front of me, I recognized gestures, responses, generational attitudes typical of my son. He is a teenager and far from hiding it, he carries it with astonishing normality in a jungle of adults. He laughs when he talks about his friend Nico, whom he teases whenever he can, he speaks with veneration of Messi and Neymar, and maintains with an incorruptible naturalness that he goes out on the field “to have fun and I will continue to do so.” He talks about the ball in feminine terms, not about the ball in masculine terms. Thus taking away the productive nuance of the game and revealing the playful aspect that all this has for him.
Interview with Lamine Yamal in Donaueschingen / EPE
He has big hands and feet, like those of a child who is still growing. She uses a low and casual tone that elevates if the conversation becomes funny, and lowers and abates when it goes through swampy territories. He shakes your hand with determination, both when you arrive and when you leave, a habit that not everyone has. Others prefer not to break social distance so as not to let you get into their distance, a trait of fearful boxers lacking self-esteem. Lamine, no. He dances in and out around you, like Muhammad Ali did. Exactly the same as when he plays and flies like a butterfly around his rivals and then stings them like a bee.
Everyone is protecting Lamine. They want to keep alive that naivety and that self-confidence, the child who gives them something that others don’t have. There are some of us who are haunted by the Peter Pan syndrome for the rest of our lives. Lamine could be up front this Euro with Nico and Peter Pan at 9. Fun is what fuels him. Yamal and Williams have woven a complicity that will bring great joy to Spain and… some maintain that it is Barcelona. But the Athletic forward has other plans. It is not in his calculations, for now, to jump onto a field to face his ‘Lions’. The frenzy of the Premier draws his attention more. However, Lamine generates curiosity and tenderness at the same time. Nico plays the role of Iñaki when he is with him. He has fun and feels responsible for taking care of him as an older brother takes care of a younger one. The same feeling that he awakens in all his teammates. In his rivals, however, the child generates panic. Let us hope, as Galeano warned, that Lamine continues not to believe himself to be Lamine so that we can continue enjoying him. The teenager will mature and become a man inevitably, but hopefully he will never leave the schoolyard or the neighborhood square where he continues to play every time he jumps onto the grass. Keep enjoying himself, Martín. Sorry, I meant to say… Lamine.
2024-06-27 18:23:36
#Teutonic #Chronicles #XIII #Lamine #Doesnt #Lamine
