Spain phenom Lamine Yamal has electrified Euro 2024. In hometown, family and friends not surprised
Spain's teenage phenom Lamine Yamal has taken the European Championship by storm by helping his team reach Sunday's final against England
MATARO, Spain (AP) — 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.
“He can no longer just take a walk down the street,” said Juan Carlos Serrano, the owner of small bar where Yamal’s father would bring him for breakfast before taking the 90-minute train ride south to practice with Barcelona, the club he joined at age 7.
