Lamine Yamal in the Spanish national team jersey. Photo: AFP
Growing up too fast for his age What would you say if you heard someone say Lamine Yamal was too old for his age? The 16-year-old winger has developed very precociously. Somehow, he became the youngest player to debut for Barcelona in La Liga a week before becoming the youngest to play for Barcelona B. Just a year out of the academy, he is already the youngest scorer in La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup - not bad for a kid who still has braces. Should we talk about international records? Yamal is the youngest player to represent Spain; Youngest player to score for Spain; Youngest player to assist for Spain; Youngest player to receive a standing ovation for Spain - at the Bernabeu - against Brazil in March, where he assisted the goal and beat Ballon d'Or nominee Vinicus Junior. When Yamal finished third in last year's Golden Boy award for the world's best young player, an Italian newspaper created a new award just to recognise him for being nominated at the youngest age in history. The award was officially named: The Youngest. Records galore When he played at EURO 2024, Yamal broke the age records at the tournament - youngest player, youngest in the knockout stages. Yamal was not only Spain's youngest player, he may have been Spain's most important player. Although Spain have been the team with the best possession since Yamal was a few years old, the famous tiki-taka style of play that helped La Roja win two consecutive EUROs and a World Cup between 2008 and 2012 has faded. Every tournament over the past decade has been a repeat of deja vu: too many passes, not enough goals, and a disappointing defeat. They control most of the pitch, but their slow build-up play is always against a crowded defence. When creativity is needed to break down defences, Spain – a country that produces midfielders better than strikers – often lack ideas. What Spain lack Yamal was raised in the possession-based environment of Spain. Having studied at La Masia since the age of seven, however, stylistically his football bears traces of the concrete pitches where he first learned to dribble at Rocafonda. “When you learn to play on the street, it gives you more independence,” Yamal recently told Spanish GQ. “It makes you more cunning than someone who has been trained in an academy.” That cunning is exactly what Spain have been lacking. Yamal’s job with the national team, as it was with Barcelona, is to receive the ball wide after a long, slow period of possession and conjure up something spectacular, the kind you can’t learn in school, to break down a defence. Yamal is a man who has the freedom to try pretty much anything that comes to mind. Confronting multiple defenders in a deadlock is one of the most difficult skills in football. Even wingers who excel at dribbling off the touchline or cutting inside struggle to do so successfully in a tight game. The rare talents who can dribble through an organised defence, like Yamal or Vinicius Jr, can do one of two things: force the opposition wide and attack up to the line, but if released, they will turn inside to pass or shoot with their stronger foot. The dilemma of Yamal’s progression is palpable. There is no right way to stop, only a multiple choice test full of wrong answers. Unpredictable, Yamal’s football is not random. He beats defenders methodically, almost algorithmically, not unlike a young Lionel Messi, who seems to have deciphered the game into a series of if-then statements. Getting past one or two is just step one of the job. Spain have a player on the opposite wing in Nico Williams, but what makes Yamal special is his ability to read the game instantly and choose the next pass or shot as quickly as possible… Underneath all that detail, there is still the Yamal who has to do his homework, joking with Williams over rock-paper-scissors to get a drink first, to remind people that he is still a teenager. “When I am 25, I want to be a responsible person and know who I am,” Yamal once said. Everyone knows. And from now until Yamal turns 25, there are two more EUROs.Laodong.vn
Source: https://laodong.vn/lao-dong-cuoi-tuan/dieu-tao-nen-mot-lamine-yamal-dac-biet-1362173.ldo
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