Lamine Yamal, Barcelona and Spain’s football sensation, has delayed the official photoshoot for the signing of his new club contract so that his grandmother can be present.
The 17-year-old, who has won hearts and minds not just with his talent on the pitch but for his humility, credits Fatima, his paternal grandmother, with keeping his feet on the ground after his parents separated when he was three years old.
Barcelona announced on Tuesday that Lamine Yamal had signed a new contract in the presence of the club president, Joan Laporta, and sporting director Deco. The deal keeps him at the club until 2031, when he will still be only 24, and has a buyout clause of €1bn (£840m).
However, the official photo session for the signing was postponed until July, when Lamine Yamal turns 18, because Fatima was unable to attend on Tuesday.
Fatima left Morocco in 1990 and arrived in Barcelona accompanied by her five children, among them Lamine Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui. She played a key role in Lamine Yamal’s upbringing after his mother, Sheila Ebana, from Equatorial Guinea, and Nasraoui separated.
When Lamine Yamal offered to buy Fatima a house she refused, saying she preferred to stay where she was in Rocafonda, the working-class neighbourhood in Mataró, a coastal town north of Barcelona.
True to his origins, Lamine Yamal celebrates his goals with his hands forming the numbers 304, the Rocafonda postal code.
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Already rated by many pundits as the best player in the world, he signed for Barcelona in 2014 when he was six years old, and was raised in La Masia, the club’s famous school-cum-football academy. He made his first-team debut in 2023.
At the Uefa European Championship last year he became the youngest player to appear in the competition, scoring the goal of the tournament against France in the semi-finals.
During the competition, which was held in Germany, Spain’s use of their young star was constrained by local labour laws that forbid anyone under 18 to work after 8pm.
Last year Lamine Yamal became the youngest player to be nominated for the coveted Ballon d’Or, winning the Kopa Trophy for best young player. At 16 he broke the record held by his Barcelona teammate Gavi as Spain’s youngest goalscorer.
