The pitch where Spain forward Lamine Yamal honed his skills in a working-class, multi-ethnic neighbourhood outside Barcelona was buzzing with life on Thursday as locals looked ahead with pride to the World Cup final against Lionel Messi’s Argentina .
“Now that the moment has come when the two of them are going to play against each other, it’s incredible,” said Keba, an 18-year-old Senegalese resident, referring to Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal’s well-known admiration for Messi.
Messi, 39, enjoyed the peak years of his career at Barcelona, having come through the club’s youth academy, and a viral photograph showing the Argentine with a baby Lamine Yamal, now 19, has captured imaginations ahead of Sunday’s final in New Jersey.
As children from migrant families played on a pitch behind a mural featuring Lamine Yamal’s face in the Rocafonda neighbourhood, in the coastal city of Mataro, his grandmother, Fatima Nasraoui, and his 15-year-old cousin Rayan watched from a nearby bench.
“I want Spain to win,” she said, adding that she would shout loudly if he scores.
“To me, Lamine means many good things, but above all, he’s like a brother because we grew up together,” his cousin said.
Lamine Yamal, who was born in Spain to a Moroccan father and mother from Equatorial Guinea, has never forgotten his roots. Throughout his career, he has honoured Rocafonda with his trademark “304” hand gesture after scoring goals — a reference to the neighbourhood’s postal code.
During the World Cup, he has worn a headband with “Rocafonda” on it, donned the flags of his parents’ countries of origin on his boots, and said football was an example of racial and social integration.
