19 - Lamine Yamal

[iniestaGOAT]

BREAKING: Barcelona and Lamine Yamal reached an agreement on his first contract. The young talent will sign the contract at the age of 16

 

[slicknick]

Too early to move him to the first team players’ thread? 😝

 

[iniestaGOAT]

Barcelona broke the labour law with Lamine Yamal against Real Betis. Children under the age of 16 aren't allowed to work and workers under the age of 18, may not perform work at night.
@mundodeportivo

I KNEW IT

 

[delancey]

Spaniards are lovely people, but being exposed to their bureaucracy on the daily would drive me nuts.

La Liga basically has Franco as Its boss, coming up with and implementing all kinds of non-sense.

Anyhow, regardless of Spain’s labor laws, the young dude is playing football, not working in a sweat shop. Common sense should overpower any urge that some idiot has to even write this for Deportivo. 😅

 

[Porque]

Non-story. Luka Romero debuted at 15 against Real Madrid in 2020, and entered the pitch after 11pm on a Wednesday.

 

[DonAK]

Reportedly signing a new contract until 2026.

Hope he can get some minutes on the RW once the title is wrapped up as that's probably the next time Xavi will consider playing him lol.

 

[Temptation]

Seems strong technically.

 

[BBZ8800]

On the ball he's just topclass, takes literally a minute to see, which makes BBZs remarks a bit weird.

No.
Something is weird with both his first touch and when he dribbles.
During his first touch, the ball often bounces 1 meter away from him.
And during his dribbles, he often kicks the ball too far away from his feet and making it easy for defenders to take the ball without any effort.

I know, he is young, he might improve blah blah.
But in the sea of overly emotional overhyped posts, let's add some balance and question marks.

His debut:

0:42 he runs into a crowded area with 3 defenders and the ball is miles away from his feet. Monkey easy turnover
0:58 first touch and the ball is again too far from him, making it easy for a defender to take it
1:04 even here, kinda dangerous first touch which might end in a lost possession in some other matches. He kicked the ball slightly too hard and then when he tried a shot, he was already to close to a goalkeeper and the angle to score was smaller (but this one was not as bad and as obvious as the first two cases from the above)

He touched the ball 5-6 times in this match and on 2-3 occasions his first touch and kicking the ball too far from his feet got him into troubles.
When I watched his highlights a few days ago, my first thought after 2 minutes of a video was the same: the ball is constantly bouncing like 1 meter away from him and that kind of a ball control won't work against senior first division defenders.

For example:
0:35 look how far away from his feet he kicked the ball in the box during this dribble
0:40 the video is cut, but he lost the ball afterwards due to kicking it too far from his straight into defender's legs
1:38 kicked the ball too far several times during this action. This works against kids, but won't work against senior defenders
2:52 look how he is not shielding the ball well with his body. He is literally offering it for defenders to take it. Again, since the opponents are kids, he survived in this action

Those two chipped passes were nice, though.

 

[JamDav1982]

His close control is fine and his decision making/vision is what stands out when watch him in younger sides.

There are a ton of moments on that video that show how good he can be in tight spaces.

As if he is going to be some kind of perfect player with no mistakes ever at 15...

Anyone can find faults if look for them.

 

[Iniesta Ultra]

No way he wasn't a little nervous, but even at 15 still much better than donkey, ferret, chihua not that means much.

 

[FCBarca]

He’s a sensational talent. Yes, only 15 but poise & intelligence beyond his years - most importantly, his talent & confidence to execute. He is fearless

Of course he‘ll be brought along slowly but like Xavi said recently we live in a different era where younger players exhibit maturity & fearlessness that is hard to comprehend. Case in point is Gavi

He will never play for the B team and will be officially in the 1st team dynamic going forward - now it is a matter of time for his real explosion into world football. Only question is where to play this left footed dominant player as he needs to work on using his right more often. Messi will help him in this I am sure

 

[Jaguar]

Any chance of him getting some minutes tonight if we are winning comfortably?

 

[Loki]

Any chance of him getting some minutes tonight if we are winning comfortably?

The only chance for him to play is, when all other forwards played like last time. Barca is not some welfare club to distribute gifts. The other players are still better than him, so he has to wait in line.

 

[JamDav1982]

Any chance of him getting some minutes tonight if we are winning comfortably?

Could well be and if not today then soon enough.

It is all part of the sales pitch to try and get him to stay.

 

[iniestaGOAT]

Will he get La Liga winners medal?