Return to where Lamine Yamal lost his fear: "People came here scared of being robbed, but that's not the case."

Dossier Lamine Yamal, the phenomenon 3 articles

• "Lamine Yamal has his mother, who is a ten."
• Protecting Lamine Yamal: a matter of state at Barça
• Return to where Lamine Yamal lost his fear: "People came here scared of being robbed, but that's not the case."

Rocafonda (Mataró)It's five in the afternoon and Abdul Nasraoui sits at the end of the bar he runs in Rocafonda, Mataró. He's starting to eat. Now there's some peace and quiet, and it's his turn, after serving the last customers. "Why do you keep working?" Rocío Escandell, the president of the neighborhood's Residents' Association, asks him pleasantly. "Because I want to keep working," replies Abdul, Lamine Yamal's paternal uncle, as if it were a given, even though his nephew, at 17, He is already a candidate for the Ballon d'OrIt's only been eight months since Abdul opened the Bar Cafeteria LY 304, specializing in Moroccan cuisine and featuring photographs of his nephew wearing a Barça and Spanish national team shirt, CF Rocafonda scarves, and a crest. from CF la Torreta, where he played before joining Barça's youth academy

Abdul arrived in Rocafonda from Morocco 27 years ago. He's now 48. "Everyone wants to support football. Barça. But also Real Madrid, Atlético, and any team that can cheer on the customers. Everyone is welcome, no matter what shirt they wear." There were many white shirts in last Sunday's classic"The Clásico was a breeze. A lot of people came here, mostly young people. "Madrid scores? Everyone shouts. Barça scores? Everyone shouts. And we had a good time. It was a fantastic weekend," he recalls with satisfaction.

Since Lamine Yamal's rise to fame, the media spotlight has been on Rocafonda. The footballer encourages it every time he celebrates a goal by tracing the last digits of the postal code in the 304 with his fingers. It is home to 11,000 people, 3,000 of whom are minors. Immigration has increased in recent years (40% of the neighborhood's population is North African), and some residents complain of increased conflict. "I haven't had any problems. I have good neighbors, good people. Everyone does their own thing," Abdul assures. His specialty is beef with barquqAbdul is used to receiving visits from journalists and curious onlookers. He shows us his WhatsApp. Requests pile up from all kinds of people he doesn't know.

The stigma of the Rocafonda neighborhood

Rocío and Abdul have known each other for years. They are two faces that are part of the landscape of these streets. In fact, Abdul and Rocío's husband went to school together. Both, each in their own way, strive to improve Rocafonda. "It's an enriching neighborhood. People come from all over, and we have very good people. The political spotlight put us in a bit of a difficult situation because they said our neighborhood was very conflictive. People came scared because they thought they would be robbed. And that's not the case," says the president of the Rocafonda Association of Young People (AVV). She attends the ARA (Association of Young People) at the Espai Jove de Rocafonda-El Palau, where every afternoon boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 25 meet for activities. Last year, they completed 180 registrations. In the main room, there's a pool table, a foosball table, a PlayStation 4 (which is primarily used to play FIFA), a table tennis table, a bench painted in the colors of the LGBTI flag, and posters about feminism, mental health, and Catalan.

"We support young people so they're not just on the streets; sometimes they don't know where to go. We do a lot of activities, they help them with their homework, and when summer comes, they take them to the beach," says Rocío. One of the young people who attended in the past is Mounir, Lamine Yamal's father. "Thanks to Lamine Yamal, the children have changed their mindset; they see that there's a kid from the neighborhood who's been able to get ahead." One of the most popular workshops at the Espai Jove is drawing. There's another, Let's Make a Neighborhood, which consists of telling the stories of people between 70 and 103 years old (the age of the oldest woman in Rocafonda). The idea is to eventually place QR codes around the neighborhood that tell these stories.

The difficult life of grandmother

One of them is that of Fátima Romani, the prodigy's paternal grandmother. She still lives in Rocafonda, but often returns to Kasr al-Kabir, a town in northern Morocco. Fátima, now 71 years old (she knows she was born in 1954, but not on what date), had a difficult childhood. Her mother died when she was six months old, and she was raised by her father, her maternal grandfather, and her uncle's wife. Her father was a soldier in Spain and had several wives. When he left, Fátima had to live with them and suffered. At 12, she was forced to marry, but the marriage only lasted five days.

She was never able to study because she had to take care of her brother and nephews. Later, she remarried, but her husband died young. In Morocco, she worked herding goats, massaging women in a sauna, in a factory, and selling vegetables. In Catalonia, she started cleaning houses without papers and later worked, now legally, in nursing homes, where she cared for and cooked. She has six children, including Abdul and Mounir. She also has 24 grandchildren. One of them is Lamine Yamal. who celebrated Ramadan for the first time this year thanks to his influence.

Ibra Dibbaga arrived at Rocafonda in 2021 from Numueley (Gambia). He speaks Catalan and Spanish. He was born in Portugal to work as a waiter. Ibra, in a low voice and with a smile, confesses that he is a Real Madrid fan. "I don't hold a grudge against Lamine Yamal, he's a star, I like the way he plays, the way he dribbles. There are many people who want to be like him, me too."

Ibra even had the privilege of playing football with Lamine Yamal in Rocafonda Park, where there's a concrete court with two goals and the famous graffiti with the neighborhood's name by urban artist Toni Salazar. "I left my fear in the park, in Mataró, a long time ago," said Lamine Yamal at the press conference before Barça-Inter. "When I wasn't a professional, we used to come here to play with him," Ibra recalls. Twenty boys and girls of various nationalities, wearing Barça and Real Madrid shirts, kick balls after school in this park overlooking the sea. "In the Rocafonda neighborhood, more Lamine Yamals and fewer evictions," reads a graffiti on the court's stands.

Dossier Lamine Yamal, the phenomenon 3 articles

• "Lamine Yamal has his mother, who is a ten."
• Protecting Lamine Yamal: a matter of state at Barça
• Return to where Lamine Yamal lost his fear: "People came here scared of being robbed, but that's not the case."