"Not Lamine Yamal or anything, the star of Rocafonda is Adnane!", shouted a European fan in the ear of a friend from the cement stands of the Nuevo Cerdeña after Adnane Ghailan Benktib (Mataró, 2000) scored the 1-0 in the Euros. It turns out that the Villa de Gracia It is the only place in the world where its goals are celebrated as much as those of its neighbor. Lamine Yamal with Barça, and a week later the footballer himself made the La Barraqueta stadium explode with joy, where the escapulados supporters watched their team's match at the Algeciras field. That day, the humblest club in the First RFEF took the lead in the competition with a comeback of the era sealed in the 101st minute by the other genius from Rocafonda, author of a double.

Lamine Yamal has gone on vacation in a private jet and displays a lifestyle that is an insult to his social class. Getting the poor to aspire to be immensely rich is the great success of the neoliberal system, which elevates the diversity of identities while hiding and camouflaging the factor that most conditions people's lives: money. But what does a kid who can't yet vote want him to know about the impoverishment of the majority that hides the immense enrichment of a select few? Raised more in La Masia and the indecent materialistic culture of business football than in Rocafonda or Torreta (where he lived with his mother, although the player only claims to be from the Mataró neighborhood, prioritizing his paternal affiliation), it's understandable that Lamine Yamal is blind to the inequalities that govern the world. Sports stars embody, more than any other media figures, extreme individualism based solely and exclusively on personal goals. They owe nothing to anyone; their innate talent blossoms spontaneously, and the money they receive for scoring goals comes out of nowhere. If most people with average incomes are completely unaware of the magma of violence, exploitation, and extractivism on which our absurd and nihilistic consumerism floats, how should we expect a perfect product of this culture, molded from childhood in the values of narcissistic triumph (does anyone know at what age they entered the farmhouse) to embrace the inequality it embodies? They'll tell us that we should be grateful for asserting himself as a young man. from the neighborhood, But what is he really talking about when he talks about that place of origin? The pride of being in the periphery in this case seems nothing more than a cliché, a topic that evokes humility and recognition of one's roots without stepping too far into the territory, an empty and romantic concept that enjoys good press and pays off in terms of marketing (for the player and for Barça, who can boast of finding talent). Note that I say all this observing the brand Lamine Yamal and not the real person behind it, whom I have no intention of judging.

It was the 74th minute of the match. Lamine Yamal scored the seventh goal against Georgia on his debut for the Spanish national team, making history twice over. The youngest to debut, the youngest to score. He was only 16 years and 57 days old.

It's five in the afternoon and Abdul Nasraoui sits at the end of the bar he runs in Rocafonda, Mataró. He starts eating. Now there's some peace and quiet, and it's his turn, after serving the last customers. "Why do you still work?" 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 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