Barça, summed up in the promise of Lamine Yamal

Sant Joan DespíLamine Yamal is not yet of legal age, but today he will play his 100th game for Barça. He will do so in his first Champions League semi-final, where the Blaugrana team has returned thanks, in large part, to the contribution of the young talent raised in the Rocafonda neighborhood of Mataró. With the first leg against Inter Milan, Lamine Yamal will reach 100 appearances after racking up 48 this season, 50 last season, and one in the 2022-23 campaign, when he made his La Liga debut under Xavi Hernández.

In fact, when he was less than 16 years old – he was about sixty days away from arriving – he already trained with the first team under the former Barça manager. The objective was clear: to avoid any temptation of another European giant coming knocking at his door, especially Real Madrid, a team that his father, Mounir, supported. "I used to be a Real Madrid fan, it's true... So what? I don't care, now it's Barça who gives me life," he said on the Spanish channel. Jijantes after the Copa del Rey final, the father of the Barça star.

Precisely in the last match against Los Blancos, Lamine Yamal once again blurred the aspirations of their eternal rival, with a comeback included, in which he provided the assists for both Pedri's first goal and Ferran's, which gave Barça the final push. In fact, being able to turn the score around demonstrates one of the main drivers for believing that this team will fight to qualify for the Champions League final until their last breath: the bulk of the squad is so young that they are not haunted by the ghosts of the most painful recent European eliminations, such as Lisbon and Anfield. In fact, Ter Stegen—who will not play; Hansi Flick confirmed yesterday that Szczesny will continue to defend the goal—is the only representative left in the squad who has played in a Champions League semi-final with Barça.

Furthermore, the team is full of youngsters who love the colors. Either because they were trained at La Masia or because they were Barça fans as children, like Pedri, a footballer who grew up in the Las Palmas youth academy, but who also seems to have developed his training as a Barça player. Not to mention that his grandfather and father were key players in the Peña Azulgrana in Tegueste, his hometown in Tenerife. Feeling the crest is an added value that Lamine Yamal didn't hesitate to highlight in the press room at Barça's Ciutat Esportiva in Sant Joan Despí during his first press appearance as a professional footballer.

He handled the journalists' questions as easily as he does on the pitch. "We saw Barça win the 2015 Champions League. We play because we hear the shirt, so Barça wins and stays at the top. It's not the same signing a player from outside as one from home, who knows what it's like to play in a derby, a Clásico, which we've played against them since we were kids because we're from La Masia," he explained. "We all dream of playing for Barça, and where heart can't reach, legs can. We've lacked that for a few seasons, and now we have it," he added. Pure fuel for facing an Inter Milan side that will have a doubt until the last minute regarding Marcus Thuram, Lautaro Martínez's usual partner in attack, and the absence of Benjamin Pavard, right-back and an old acquaintance of Hansi Flick, with whom they played together at Bayern Munich. Nearly 3,000 Italian fans will accompany the team to Montjuïc.

Lamine Yamal, fearless

Young, homegrown, uninhibited, and brave. "I told Ronald [Araujo] that it didn't matter if they conceded one or two goals, because this year they can't beat us," explained Lamine Yamal, speaking of the Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid. Today he will play his first Champions League semi-final: "I'm not afraid, but I do have the tingling in my stomach from before playing a game like this. I think this is good, and all players have it. But no fear, I left that fear in the park in Mataró a long time ago," he said. Tonight, one more step towards continuing "the Barça era," not "the Lamine Yamal era," as he himself emphasized.