A year ago, Lamine Yamal was a little-known teenage prospect at Barcelona, who became the youngest player to debut for the Blaugrana the previous season. Now, the 17-year-old is a Euro 2024 champion and perhaps the most in-demand player at Barcelona.
The manner in which he has handled the attention has so far been admirable, but there is concern growing at Barcelona about his rise. According to RadioMarca, there are people at the club worried about the heavy media attention he is receiving, and already there are people working to ensure that it does not get out of hand.
Their fear is that Lamine Yamal gets to a point where he feels like he can no longer control things within his life. Part of it is that the 17-year-old changed agents to Jorge Mendes, whereas they would have been much more comfortable with his previous representative Ivan de la Pena. They feel that the change was made with the help of others at the club, whereas with former player de la Pena, Lamine Yamal would be protected more from his rise.
Al-Hilal offered 100 million euros to Barcelona for Raphinha this summer, with a salary of 25 million euros per season, but the Brazilian rejected the proposal with a brief 'No, thank you'. @joaquimpiera
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) September 11, 2024
It is cited that Lamine Yamal has in the last 10 months undergone changes in his life that have not happened to anyone before, and certainly, taking into account his age, there is no arguing that. His first professional appearance was less than a year and a half ago, and already he is regarded as one fo the best in the world, with building-length advertising of the 17-year-old present around Spain.
In addition, he recently signed a promotional deal with Gerard Pique’s King’s League, and has this summer started conducting more interviews while on Spain duty. Only a few weeks ago, his father Mounir was stabbed in the street, and is still recovering from a traumatic event. At the very least, they have perhaps one of the people that can best understand the situation in Bojan Krkic at the club.
