This is how Lamine Yamal decided to break his silence

Barcelona"I know [the chants] were for the rival team [Egypt], but as a Muslim person it is a lack of respect and an intolerable thing [...]. For those who sing these things: using religion as a mockery makes you look like ignorant and racist people," published on Wednesday on his social networks the star of Barça and the backbone of Luis de la Fuente's squad. On Tuesday, after the duel against Egypt and the globally shameful scenario that was experienced in the match against the North African team, the footballer left Espanyol's stadium with his head down and without greeting the local fans. Afterwards, he passed through the mixed zone in a hurry, absorbed, looking at his mobile phone, barely even wanting to lift his gaze to see the press who were interviewing some of his teammates. Lamine Yamal was restless.

His paternal family is Muslim. In fact, his grandmother Fàtima raised and cared for him during the weekends of his childhood in the Mataró neighborhood of Rocafonda. Although his parents separated when he was very young and he went to live with his mother Sheila in Granollers – before moving to La Masia – he remained deeply rooted in this neighborhood. Lamine Yamal has great affection for Fàtima. When he started to make his mark on Barça's first team, he continued to go, from time to time, to his grandmother's house for a snack, as he did as a child. She is the main influence that, last year, a few months before turning eighteen, led him to celebrate his first Ramadan. Thus, a good part of Lamine Yamal's childhood, even though when he signed for Barça the maternal family moved to Barcelona – now they have bought him a house in Maresme – and he moved into La Masia, is marked by Rocafonda. Besides his paternal family's home, his uncle Abdul ran the Panadería Arábica there and, now, in the neighborhood, he has a bar in honor of his nephew: Bar Familia LY 304.

Lamine Yamal did not want to remain silent

The Islamophobic insults during Tuesday's Spain-Egypt match, which were not the work of a few hotheads, hurt the footballer. On Wednesday, when he woke up, he was still uneasy. He wanted to do something about it, he didn't want to remain silent. He decided to use his platform and thought he had to share a message on his social media, specifically on Instagram, an app that footballers really like and that Lamine Yamal uses practically every day. There he shares motivational messages before important matches or expressions of gratitude to the fans, posts corresponding to advertising commitments – and from his Kings League team –, jokes with teammates, moments with his closest circle – his cousin Mohamed Abde and his best childhood friend, Souhaib, and his younger brother – and, also, for example, he shared moments with the Argentine singer Nicki Nicole, while their brief relationship lasted.

It is his most personal communication channel and mouthpiece, and he decided to use it to also cry out against the racism he experienced during the Spain-Egypt match. The agency The Underdogs, a marketing firm linked to Gestifute, Jorge Mendes' main company, is who advises him on communication matters, as well as on the management of advertising agreements. It is founded by Bernardo San Torcuato, who is mainly in charge of the footballer's communication and promotion affairs, while his brother Santiago San Torcuato and Santiago Liotta, both lawyers, handle the legal advice. Lamine Yamal is the one who has the final say in everything published on his Instagram. He does not publish anything without him having seen it, even if it is about advertising agreements. The initiative to publicly condemn Tuesday's Islamophobic insults was born from the player's own initiative, who communicated what he intended to do to the aforementioned agency, and together they agreed on the message he would ultimately publish on his Instagram.

His father, Mounir, also did not remain silent. In his case, he spoke in an Instagram live from the dining room of his apartment in Barcelona with a Catalan flag in the background. "Long live Spain, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and everyone equally. What problem do you have? We are brothers. If you respect, you will be respected," he said. This Friday, Hansi Flick, in support of his footballer – and society in general – also referred to the issue with conviction: "Lamine made a fantastic statement. In the world of football, we are here for inclusion. It was frustrating. It is a small number of idiots who do not understand it. It is time to think and improve. Not only in football, but also in life. Racism has no place here. We all want to be respected, and it doesn't matter the skin, race, or religion we have. None of that. We don't want racism. It is time to change all these thoughts".