Lamine Yamal and the Price of Arrogance

At 18, Lamine Yamal had it all: talent, fame, confidence, and ego.

But to truly take his career to the next level, Yamal had to learn what every prodigy soon learns, football does not forgive arrogance, and glory does not come for free.

Lamine Yamal is a gift that football rarely gives to the world . It takes ten or twenty years for someone like him to appear, with the speed, technique, thinking and arrogance needed to make the stands explode. He is a natural genius, born to do extraordinary things. But between “talent” and “intelligence”, between “being born Yamal” and “knowing how to live like Yamal”, there is a big gap. And in the recent Clasico, he stepped into that gap.

A casual remark, a video on the internet, and the Bernabeu became a place of judgment. 80,000 people cheered, teammates were confused, Barcelona was swept up in anger. Yamal didn’t need to play badly to be the center of attention, just three words were enough to turn him into a symbol of “disrespect.” The price of fame, as usual, was paid immediately.

Every prodigy has to go through that moment. When jokes become crimes, when the stage turns into a courtroom, and when the whole world watches every frown, every step. There, talent is not enough, it requires courage, humility and learning to keep quiet at the right time.

Lamine Yamal did not understand that football not only rewards talent, but also demands trade-offs. It generously gave him golden legs, then demanded his youth back. Fame gave him millions of fans, then took his privacy. At 18, many people are still in school, but Yamal had to learn to live in the spotlight of the whole planet.

He is not the first to face this paradox. Di Stefano was a Sunday saint. Pele was a living legend. Cruyff brought the rebellious spirit of the Beatles to the pitch. Maradona was a tragic hero, while Messi and Ronaldo turned football into a global brand. All have had to learn to master themselves. Now, it is Lamine’s turn.

Lamine Yamal has not yet understood that football not only rewards talent, but also requires trade-offs.

The difference is that Yamal was born in the age of social media, where every word is recorded, amplified, and distorted. He has no right to make public mistakes, because each mistake costs the entire season. “If I win, no one can say anything,” Yamal once said. But that is an illusion. Win or lose, stupid is stupid, disrespectful is disrespectful.

No one wants Yamal to change who he really is. Just don’t let the “star role” swallow up the human side. A little arrogance is necessary to stand in the middle of the Bernabeu and smile. But too much, and it becomes a burden.

Football doesn’t need another star who burns himself out in the spotlight. It needs a Lamine Yamal who listens, learns, and knows that the path to genius is not measured by the turn of the ball, but by maturity. At 18, he doesn’t need to be a legend. He just needs to be wise enough not to burn himself out before he can shine.

Source: https://znews.vn/lamine-yamal-va-cai-gia-cua-su-ngao-man-post1599278.html