Conquering a continent at the age of 17 was not even within Napoleon’s reach. Such an honor did fall on Lamine Yamal on July 14, one day after her seventeenth birthday, when the young pearl of the Barça youth team was crowned in the European Championship in Germany, so brilliantly won by Spain. After a remarkable season individually but the most gray collectively in his club, Yamal definitively grew up in the Black Forest, from where he directed the successes of a team that marveled for its reliability and play. No one will forget the summer in which he became a star.
The fourth continental title of the Spanish team, which already places it as the best in the record, came accompanied by unusual brilliance. The unanimity that De la Fuente’s team was the one that played the best was indisputable during the month of competition on German soil. The results corroborated it. The rivals fell one after another. Seven victories in seven games was the impeccable balance of the red team. Only in the quarterfinal match, played in Stuttgart against the host Germany, did they need extra time to move forward. A goal by Mikel Merino with a header, in the same stadium where his father made history for Osasuna, pointed the way to the semi-finals.
De la Fuente’s team fell in love in Germany in a tournament that elevated the young Barça player
In the penultimate step came the definitive emergence of Lamine Yamal. Until that match at the Allianz in Munich against the almighty France, the young talent had not stopped making mischief with his favorite partner, Nico Williams, although he had not yet obtained the goal award. Nor had he needed it to become a nightmare for all rivals and the main threat that De la Fuente had.
But before the blues he revealed himself to those who still doubted him, to those who had not yet placed him on the radar. Even without goals in the Allianz light, Lamine grabbed the ball a few meters from the area, danced on it, made Rabiot dizzy and hooked a shot that fell in love with the corner of a helpless Maignan. Which amounts to a real great goal in an entire Euro Cup semi-final.
Five days later, back in Berlin, where they had started their journey, Spain would win the tournament, defeating England in the final with an agonizing goal from Oyarzábal. Rodri was chosen as the best player of the tournament by the experts and Lamine Yamal, the best young player. Both, along with Cucurella, Fabián, Nico Williams and Dani Olmo, would also be part of the best eleven.
All of this was confirmation that the foundations of De la Fuente’s project, which already has two titles, are not only strong, but also predict a splendid future for the Spanish team.
#Lamine #Yamal #conquers #Europe
