"We fell here as we could have fallen anywhere else. And then came this whole story: an Argentine named Leo who is Lamine's first coach. It's as if it were already written," smiles Leo Giordanella (Cipolletti, Patagonia; 1992). Leo Messi and Lamine Yamal first crossed paths in the World Cup final, with a victory for the Spanish national team and the young star from Rocafonda, but their relationship is full of precious connections and incredible coincidences that have united them for years.

I currently attend to more than a dozen young people in my practice, some born in Morocco and others here, children of Moroccan parents. When I listen to them, I often think about how little they resemble the portrait we usually paint of the children of immigrants. They all have higher education: degrees, master's degrees, or doctorates. They hold diverse professions and occupy positions of responsibility in hospitals, universities, professional associations, and other institutions in the country. But there is a characteristic that unites them even more than their résumés.

For some time now, footballers have stopped being simply athletes to become style icons, very often through association with renowned fashion brands. But finding the perfect styling is not an easy task, and it's most common for celebrities, when dressing, to receive advice from expert professionals who know much more about fashion than they do. Lamine Yamal, Barça's great star and one of the standout footballers of the 2026 World Cup, has also decided to rely on someone external to choose the pieces for his wardrobe. The chosen one to advise him is a person almost as well-known as he is, Pilar Vila, Rosalía's sister.

Rivers of ink have flowed these days over a photograph that came to light two summers ago, on the occasion of the fascinating emergence, at just 16 years old, of Lamine Yamal in a major international tournament: a European Championship that the Spanish team ended up winning in England. The current impact, on the eve of a World Cup final, surpasses the initial one. In fact, there are even skeptics who suggest, in the midst of the explosion of artificial intelligence, that the image in question is a fake.

A new era has begun in world football. Spain sewed the second star as world champion onto their jersey after defeating an Argentina in extra time, who had run out of miracles in the semifinals. The final of a strange and exciting World Cup was always played according to what Spain wanted, turning everything around the ball, attacking with ambition. Glory is theirs after a final in which Messi, very disconnected from the game, ceded the crown to Lamine Yamal. An era ends and a new one begins, personified in the young man from Rocafonda. One man alone cannot win World Cups, but a team can. And Luis de la Fuente's team, a coach until recently unknown, is a block that defends a style. An idea in which the collective rules, even though a lack of accuracy prolonged the agony until extra time. A final decided thanks to an unexpected hero, the Valencian Ferran Torres, who caught a ball inside the area. If in 2010 Spain won their first World Cup with a goal from Iniesta in the 116th minute, on this occasion the goal arrived in the 106th thanks, once again, to a Barça player.

Football, the king of sports and a global business, has the professional sporting aspect and the political identity aspect. It moves a lot of money, large masses of fans, and many illusions. The passion for a club has a strong component of emotional adhesion. Support for a national team also does, with the added political layer. Football awakens passions and sublimes wars: better a competition between young people on the field than a life-or-death clash between soldiers. Hopefully, Ukraine and Russia - or Israel and Palestine - would compete in stadiums with a ball instead of doing so from the trenches with deadly weapons.

When this Sunday the ball starts rolling in the World Cup final at the MetLife stadium on the outskirts of New York, the city that never sleeps, all eyes will be on two players trained in Barcelona, Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal. The leaders of Argentina and Spain, the two finalist teams. It will be special for a group of people who, searching through old photos on their mobile phones, find some that show these two players when they were much younger: the coaches from La Masia who, in some way, helped them on both their paths to MetLife stadium.

Every World Cup leaves a handful of images destined to become icons. The hand of God by Maradona, Pelé lifting the World Cup or Lionel Messi celebrating his first world title wearing a bisht, the black and gold robe they placed on him before lifting the trophy in Qatar 2022. But if there is one photograph that has marked the prelude and a large part of the narrative of the 2026 World Cup, it is a very different one: a twenty-year-old Messi bathing a baby who, almost two decades later, has become his rival in a World Cup final. That baby was Lamine Yamal.

Attempted robbery at Lamine Yamal's house on the night the player led Spain to the World Cup semi-finals. As reported by La Vanguardia and confirmed by Mossos sources to ARA, thieves tried to access the Blaugrana star's property in Esplugues de Llobregat early this morning, but were caught by one of his private security guards, who saw the intruders on the security cameras, according to the aforementioned newspaper.

Mariano Rajoy's racist comment about the French team continues to generate reactions. After the criticism that has come from France and the condemnation from Pedro Sánchez's government, it is now Lamine Yamal's turn. "Football, if it serves any purpose, is to integrate society," he stated, following the indignation that has been awakened the chronicle that the former Spanish president published after Spain's victory against Belgium, which qualified Luis de la Fuente's team for the World Cup semi-finals.

With the numbers in hand, Lamine Yamal is far from the offensive contributions of other stars of this World Cup. For now, the Barça winger scores a single goal in the tournament and has not played any assistance. Of course, with the exception of the match against Portugal, he has not been able to play all the possible minutes. In the debut against Cape Verde he was a substitute and only played 19 minutes. Against Saudi Arabia he was a starter and was substituted at halftime after scoring. Against Uruguay, 76 minutes; and against Austria, 85. With the 90 minutes of the round of 16 against Portugal, he adds up to 315 minutes out of a possible 450. 70%. A low percentage if you consider that the top scorers (Leo Messi, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé) exceed 90% participation.

For those of us who like football, it's very difficult to enjoy the World Cup, with all this display of banal nationalism and cheap geopolitics. You might tell me, as the elders used to say, and as Aesop said before, that the fox, when it can't reach something, says it's sour. And indeed, I wish Catalonia could participate in this circus, and it irritates me that FIFA instigates a fever of patriotism — as it does every four years — which, in our case, is the expression of a substituted identity. When faced with a World Cup, everyone chooses a jersey, and if the Catalan one isn't available, they put on another, be it the Spanish one (because it's where Catalans play, by decree), the Moroccan one, or the Argentine one, which is the one for many newcomers. In Catalonia, everyone has the right to exercise, except Catalans.Spain is a fragile nation and knows that sport softens the cracks. Since now, in addition, there are many Catalans in the Spanish team, a Muslim and a black person, Spanish nationalism progress has prepared a speech tailored to them, evading the fact that the purported plurality of the red is based on an imposition. Obviously, they have the complicity of the Catalan players, who adapt to the situation because they do not want to be under suspicion. Lamine Yamal speaks Catalan, if necessary, when he wears the Barça jersey, but he gives it up at the World Cup so that there are no doubts about his loyalties, which may be those of the heart but also those dictated by common sense and the pressure of his environment: look, Lamine, they already look at you strangely because you are half Moroccan and Muslim, let's not make it more complicated with demonstrations of Catalanism.

The last time the Spanish national team had overcome a World Cup knockout match was in 2010, the year they were proclaimed champions in South Africa. Since then, la roja had either fallen in the group stage or in the first knockout match. Sixteen years later, the Spanish national team broke the curse by defeating Austria (3-0) to reach the round of 16, where they will face Portugal. Oyarzabal around the half-hour mark, and Pedro Porro and – once again – Oyarzabal in the second half tipped the balance in favor of a team that played from less to more but ended up thrashing and dispelling the doubts they had shown at the start of the competition.

The name of Julán Álvarez is on everyone's lips, including the president of Barça, Joan Laporta, who spoke about him on the day he was sworn in again as the club's top official. In an impromptu press conference after the swearing-in ceremony, Laporta assured that the offer made by Barça about a month ago remains firm, but that "it is not unlimited in time".

Lamine Yamal's boots explain better than many speeches what football is today. And, incidentally, what Europe is today.Lamine Yamal plays for Spain, but he has had the flags of Morocco and Equatorial Guinea, the countries of origin of his parents, printed on his boots. In a single gesture, identity, roots, and mobility coexist. And this mix, far from weakening teams, makes them stronger, more unpredictable, and more attractive.In this World Cup, many teams can no longer be understood as homogeneous national blocs. Nine of Spain's twenty-six players work for teams outside the country. The entire squad of Ivory Coast plays abroad. And only a quarter of Morocco's footballers were born in Morocco. France, probably the most feared team in the tournament, is also a product of this mix: only four players have parents born in the Hexagon.Individual cases make it even more evident. Lamine Yamal and Michael Olise could have chosen which country to represent. Olise plays with France, but was born in England and could also have played with Algeria or Nigeria. The two Williams brothers have chosen different paths: Nico plays with Spain; Iñaki, with Ghana. The admired – and loved and missed – Messi, with Spanish nationality and trained at La Masia, was about to play with la roja in 2004.Almost all the teams in this World Cup are mosaics of ethnic, national, and cultural intersections. And yet –or perhaps precisely because of this–, football lovers are witnessing the most interesting, fun, competitive, and beautiful championship to watch in recent decades.Can we get anything out of all this? Yes, and not just about football.The first lesson is that confrontation with the other is a powerful mechanism for creating the existential feeling that the anthropologist Victor Turner called communitas. Football matches are an example: fans forget all their internal differences, suspicions, and grudges, and gather unconditionally under a common cause.The set of individuals becomes a community. A single people. Differences –political, social, economic– disappear, absorbed by an irrational and dionysian spirit. Facing a well-defined adversary, human beings tend to merge with the masses to confront it. It is enough to define an enemy — this one or that other— for this popular force to go here or there.

Only Pelé had managed to score the first goal of a World Cup match at eighteen years old or younger. Until Lamine Yamal arrived. The Rocafonda genius was in charge of scoring the first goal in Spain's thrashing of Saudi Arabia in Atlanta (4-0), a match where Luis de la Fuente's team shook off the bad feelings from their weak debut against Cape Verde. If against the Africans Spain couldn't even score a single goal, against the Saudis they already had three in 25 minutes. Between Lamine Yamal and a brilliant Mikel Oyarzabal, Spain thrashed in a match that became increasingly disjointed as the minutes passed, as Luis De la Fuente's team had quickly finished the job. In fact, he substituted Lamine Yamal at halftime to protect him, because the future of the national team in the World Cup depends heavily on him.

From the young Lamine Yamal and Pedri González, main hopes of the Spanish team, to legendary veterans like Leo Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Luka Modrić, still references for Argentina, Portugal, and Croatia, respectively. Few World Cups in history have had such a wide spectrum in terms of the age of the stars who will be part of it. The World Cup starting this June 11 will be the longest to date (48 teams), and also one of the most fiercely contested. Will the albiceleste" repeat the ecstasy of 2022? Will France be as superior as its starting lineup suggests? Will Brazil once again be a feared opponent by everyone? What will be the surprise team? All these predictions will depend on the role of the ten essential footballers in a tournament that will shake the planet for five exciting weeks.

Before debuting in his first World Cup and after a season with Barça in which he has re-edited the title of League champion and the Spanish Super Cup, Lamine Yamal has revealed some inner details on his personal YouTube channel. In a relaxed conversation, at different daily moments such as a car journey, the blaugrana star and the Spanish national team has confessed that he thought he would win the Ballon d'Or, which was finally awarded to Ousmane Dembélé, and has explained the positive impact that not lifting the award had on him.

The World Cup, the most important and anticipated sporting event of the year, is now entering its final phase. From now on, there is no room for error for the 48 teams that, from Thursday, June 11, are competing with a single objective: to be in the final on Sunday, July 19 (9 p.m.) which will be played at the MetLife Stadium located in New Jersey (near New York).

The FC Barcelona first team squad, the coaching staff, and the board celebrated the end-of-season dinner this Wednesday at the Restaurant Casanova Beach Club in Castelldefels, with about 150 guests. The gathering, initially planned as a celebration for the League and Super Cup titles, also ended up becoming a tribute to Robert Lewandowski, who announced his departure from the club on Saturday. In fact, he already said goodbye to the fans in the last match at Camp Nou against Betis. The Polish forward received recognition from his teammates and the coaching staff in an internal event, even though there is still one match left to play.