Spain's 16-year-old sensation makes history

Paul Fennessy

LAMINE YAMAL was already the youngest-ever player to appear at the Euros and tonight he became the competition’s youngest-ever goalscorer.

In stark contrast with the dull, functional, uninspired France, Spain have competed in this tournament with a sense of bravery on the ball and adventure in attack.

The willingness to continually start a 16-year-old, named Player of the Match after a sensational performance on Tuesday evening, epitomises La Roja’s fearless approach.

France’s players may have boldly spoken out about the political situation in their country and helped inspire a left-wing triumph in the elections. However, the team’s on-pitch displays over the past few weeks have been decidedly conservative.

Didier Deschamps’ unabashed defence-first approach has served him well overall at previous tournaments, reaching back-to-back World Cup finals, but it contributed to their downfall this evening.

Les Bleus exited the tournament with a whimper — once Spain secured a 2-1 lead through Dani Olmo’s deflected finish in the 25th minute, they scarcely looked like surrendering their advantage.

Unai Simon was seldom tested, as a French attack with the rich talent of Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Randal Kolo Muani as well as belatedly Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud looked seriously laboured throughout and registered just three shots on target during the 90 minutes.

Yet one player unquestionably delivered on a night when most star attackers flattered to deceive.

You can often measure a footballer’s greatness by his ability to stand up when the team are reeling.

With Spain on the ropes, the Barcelona prodigy did just that, producing an unstoppable curling effort out of nothing, 13 minutes after France had taken the lead against the run of play and threatened to double their advantage with their speedy and clinical counter-attack.

In football, young pacy wingers are often hugely unreliable and inconsistent. They are typically the first player to be substituted if the situation has gone awry and usually bear the brunt of the criticism if the team’s attack is flailing.

Yet just as impressive as Yamal’s wonder goal was his overall contribution.

He invariably did the right thing when in possession, whether it was playing a simple pass or trying to beat his man.

The youngest player on the pitch shared Spain’s right wing with the oldest.

38-year-old Jesus Navas seems to have been around forever and is old enough to be Yamal’s father.

In 2017, Navas’ career appeared to be winding down as he left Man City — that same summer, Yamal turned 10 years old and had just joined the Catalan giants three years earlier, having been born in Esplugues de Llobregat, a municipality of the Barcelona metropolitan area.

And tonight, the veteran rather than the youngster looked less at ease and more nervous on this big stage. Navas probably could have done better for the early French goal and was also booked for a rash challenge in the opening few minutes before eventually being substituted after failing to show the same level of maturity and composure as his 16-year-old teammate.

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Yamal turns 17 on Saturday, and being part of a victory in the final against England or Netherlands the next day would be some way to belatedly celebrate.

It’s been an astonishing rise in general for Yamal and plenty of others deserve enormous credit for being willing to trust him at such a young age.

The graduate of the famous La Masia academy had only recently turned 15 and not signed his first professional contract when then-manager Xavi called him to train with the Barcelona first team.

In April last year, after coming on as a substitute against Real Betis, at 15 years, nine months, and 16 days old, he became the fifth youngest player in La Liga’s history.

Aged 16 years and 68 days, he became the second youngest player to feature in the Champions League.

A couple of months later, he won the inaugural Golden Boy trophy, awarded to the best young player in world football.

Already, he has 51 appearances and seven goals for Barcelona’s first team.

Moreover, at the age of 16 years and 57 days old, Yamal scored in a 7-1 win over Georgia last September to become the youngest player and goalscorer for Spain.

Meanwhile, Barcelona regard his ceiling as so high that when the teenager signed a contract extension last October until 2026, the buyout clause was set at €1 billion.

You may also have seen the incredible photo doing the rounds on social media of Lionel Messi at 20 posing with a six-month-old Yamal. Yet even the Argentine superstar did not enjoy quite so rapid a rise to the top. Messi had to wait until the age of 17 before making his La Liga debut at Barca, while he was 34 when he won his first major trophy at international level. The Spain starlet has already comfortably eclipsed one of those age records and another could be about to follow.

Of course, Yamal still has plenty to do before a genuine comparison can be made between the pair.

It is easy even for superstars to go completely off the boil and look ill-equipped for top-level football, as another one-time prodigy Kylian Mbappe has shown at these Euros.

But the outlook is promising — everything so far suggests Yamal has the attitude to sustain a lengthy career at the top level if serious injury can be avoided.

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Moreover, before Tuesday evening’s semi-final, French midfielder Adrien Rabiot had unwisely doubted the youngster, commenting: “Yamal will need to show more than what he’s done so far in the tournament if he wants to be in the final.”

Following the final whistle, an ecstatic and triumphant Yamal had two words for Rabiot as he stared into the camera: “Speak now!”

“We have seen a genius, the product of a genius,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente added afterwards.

“He’s a player we have to take care of — I have to give him the advice to keep working with the same humility and keep his feet on the floor.

“He would keep growing but this maturity and attitude at such a young age is like that of a more experienced player.

“We are lucky he is Spanish and we can enjoy him for many more years.”