While Barcelona may have suffered their first defeat of the Hansi Flick era, one of the main positives was once again Lamine Yamal. The 17-year-old took it upon his shoulders to swing the game back into the balance after a red card for Eric Garcia and an early goal from Magnes Akliouche, cutting in and firing into the corner for the equaliser against AS Monaco.
Former Sporting Director Jordi Cruyff has explained that his explosion, which was carefully detonated in the second half of last season, could have come even earlier. Manager at the time Xavi Hernandez was keen to give him his debut even earlier than he eventually did.
“I remember because the first times he went to train, after five minutes the coach, Xavi at the time, looked at me and said ‘This is special.’ He wanted to give him his debut a bit earlier on, but what happened was that we he wasn’t under contract, so we are going to first ensure that he will be ours for many years,” explained Cruyff to Movistar+ as part of their Champions League club.
“But honestly, all of his more veteran colleagues, when he touched the ball for the first time, they were looking at him with these eyes, as if ‘this is something different’. It’s very difficult to find that,” recounted Cruyff.
The 17-year-old made his eventual debut on the 29th of April 2023, coming on for the final seven minutes against Real Betis in a 4-0 win. He nearly had an assist in his opening game too, but just four months later, he was already playing a key role in a 4-3 win over Villarreal.
Lamine Yamal would later admit that he was very nervous during his debut, and felt he was terrible. Since, the pressure has not shown one bit, on the now Euro 2024 champion.