FC Barcelona Ace Lamine Yamal: Playing For Real Madrid Is Impossible

Forbes

2 days ago

While on international duty for Spain, FC Barcelona star Lamine Yamal said that doing a Luis ... More Figo-esque switch across the divide of El Clasico to Real Madrid is 'impossible'.
While on international duty for Spain, FC Barcelona star Lamine Yamal said that doing a Luis Figo-esque switch across the divide of El Clasico to Real Madrid is 'impossible'.
Lamine has been at Barca since the age of seven, when he was first scouted by its world famous La Masia academy. Breaking through to the first team in 2023, he has since become a Ballon d'Or candidate and followed up on a January promise by renewing his contract until 2031 last week.
Though he is a Culer through and through, there have sometimes been concerns that Lamine might follow in Figo's footsteps and echo the Ballon d'Or winner's 2000 switch to Madrid considering his father is a Los Blancos fan.
Asked about the prospect by COPE while on international duty for Spain, with whom he won the Euros in 2024, Lamine said that it was 'impossible' and that anyone worried about a potential transfer that would send shockwaves through football should be forgotten about.
The 17-year-old also stated that 'I don't think about winning the Ballon d'Or'.
'I think about enjoying myself, playing well and if it has to come, it will come' he added.
Reflecting briefly on Barca's domestic treble-winning season where it also reached the Champions League finals, Lamine said: 'We are improving, but we have to believe that we are the best. When Real Madrid lost to Arsenal, people thought they could come back. And when we drew against Inter, people doubted us. That is what must be changed.'
A clearly competitive animal who often plays like he has a point to prove, Lamien revealed that his friends 'send me bad things on TikTok 20 minutes before the games, [because] they know that motivates me'.
'Against France, I was sleeping on the bus and my friend called me to say: 'Remember what Adrien Rabiot said [about] you', and I said: 'Yes, I remember''.
Lamine's statements will come as a comfort to Culers, with his latest FC Barcelona contract set to keep the number 19 in Catalonia until he is at least 23. Before his current terms' expiry in 2031, however, expect President Joan Laporta or whoever is in power to try and tie him down further.