The person who prevented Lamine Yamal
It has been revealed that Lamine Yamal, who is expected to leave his mark on world football for the next 20 years, has returned from PSG’s door.
Barcelona’s young talent Lamine Yamal was recognized as the world’s best under-21 player by winning the Kopa Trophy award at the Ballon d’Or ceremony. The 17-year-old player played an important role in Spain’s European Championship victory, and in Barcelona, he scored seven goals and made nine assists in his first season.
However, Yamal’s career would almost shift in another direction. At the age of 15, PSG had made an attractive offer to break away the young talent from Barcelona. According to Mundo Deportivo, Xavi, who was the Barcelona coach at that time, managed to keep Yamal in the team by preventing this transfer.
Xavi, one of the legendary players of Barcelona, promised to give the young talent a chance in the A team at the first opportunity. Upon Xavi’s promise, Yamal rejected PSG’s offer and decided to stay in Barcelona. Xavi fulfilled his promise and put Yamal in the game against Real Betis in April 2023, and Yamal went down in history as the youngest player to make a Barcelona league match at the age of 15.
He did not neglect to thank Xavi
After this match, Yamal signed a three-year professional contract with Barcelona in October 2023. The release fee in the contract was determined as exactly 1 billion euros; this figure was determined in order to break the attention of other giant clubs in Europe.
While Yamal’s rising performance continues, Barcelona President Joan Laporta stated that they rejected offers worth 200 million euros for the young star. “We get crazy offers for players like Lamine, but we trust him and don’t plan to sell,” Laporta said.
In his speech after receiving the Kopa Trophy award, Yamal thanked Xavi and said, “I am very proud to have won this award. I would like to thank the technical team, my teammates and especially Xavi, who has always been interested in me,” he said. With this award, Yamal became the third Barcelona player to win Kopa Trophy after Pedri and Gavi.
While the performance of the young star continues to attract the attention of Europe’s giant clubs, Barcelona has taken every precaution to secure Yamal’s future.
