Spain phenom Lamine Yamal has electrified Euro 2024. In hometown, family and friends not surprised
In the working-class neighborhood where Spain’s teenage phenom Lamine Yamal grew up, there are two soccer fields divided by a chain-link fence.
Next to the green carpet of the local soccer club, local lore has it that Yamal played with his friends on a small concrete slab where boys and girls now come daily to have a kickaround. Balls fly through the net-less goal frame and smack into a wall bearing the neighborhood’s name in big graffiti-style letters: Rocafonda.
But Yamal’s days of playing pickup games vanished as he blossomed into global soccer’s newest rising star. Now instead of watching him from a bench, his neighbors will gather around televisions, smart phones, or a large screen installed in a park come Sunday to root for Yamal to lead Spain to victory over England in the final of the European Championship.