Spain’s path to the European Championship final was paved by the competition’s prodigy Lamine Yamal. With a magnificent goal in Tuesday’s game against France, his market share is approaching 200 million euros.
Lamine Yamal. PHOTO: Facebook
Thought topic: if in Romania there are people who periodically do a “bow” in front of a player like Ianis Hagi (26 years old), mentioning his footballing genius, what should the Spaniards do in the case of Lamine Yamal (16 years and 363 days)?
And one more question: if Ianis Hagi had the career of Lamine Yamal, how would we have reacted to his success? Here are some dilemmas that put us in front of some scary scenarios in a country like Romania, in which, many times, we don’t have a sense of proportion and indulge in hallucinatory exaggerations. Euro 2024, a tournament in which the national team won one match out of four, is the most recent example of this.
Conversely, Spain, without having any “soul generation“, but with some top footballers, he is preparing for the Euro 2024 final. After a historic journey. First of all, thanks to the success with France, the Iberians became the first in a European with six wins in six matches. Then, the undisputed star of the game in Munich, the kid Lamine Yamal, ticked two fanstastic milestones:
*The youngest scorer in the history of the European Championships at 16 years and 362 days. The player registered with Barcelona surpassed the record held by the Swiss striker, Johan Vonlanthen. He scored, also against France, but at Euro 2004, at the age of 18 years and 141 days.
*The youngest player to play and score in a semi-final of a major tournament, Euro or World Cup, surpassing the performance of the Brazilian Pele. He was 17 years and 239 days old when he scored at the 1958 WC and 17 years and 244 days old when he played in the semi-final.
It should be noted that Romanian Cristi Chivu is in 9th place in the list of the earliest scorers in European history. He scored against England (3-2), at Euro 2000, at 19 years and 238 days.
A federation “raised” selector
Of course, Spain “hypnotize“, currently, through its collection of stars, led by Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo and Nico Williams. “director” success deserves, in turn, a brief presentation. We are talking about the selector Luis de la Fuente (63 years old). Who, at club level, was active only at Alaves (August – October 2011), after which he was “grown” by the Spanish Football Federation. With Luis de la Fuente, the Iberians conquered, in turn, the European U19 in 2016 and the European U21 in 2019. As a coincidence, in both tournaments, in the semi-finals, Spain eliminated France! As it happened now at Euro 2024.
Mbappe, painful speech
If Spain is a big favorite to win the trophy after the final in Berlin, on the other hand, France, although they advanced to the semi-finals of Euro 2024, left, overall, a bad impression in Germany. And including the star Kylian Mbappe (25 years old) admitted that the world vice-champion did not play the best football in this final tournament.
“The Spanish played better than us, they deserved to go to the final, and we are going home. I didn’t do enough to reach the final. Personally, I had the ambition to be European champion, I had the ambition to do a good Euro. I did neither. It’s a disappointment“, declared the decar of the French.
Euro 2024, the last matches
Semifinals
Spain – France 2-1
England – Holland
Tonight, 22.00, Pro TV and the VOYO platform
Final, Sunday, 10 p.m
Spain – England / Holland
