Barcelona Like Munir El Haddadi and unlike Ez Abde, both debutants in international selections when they were Blaugrana, Lamine Yamal has chosen the absolute Spanish combination as his selection. Events came to a head this Wednesday, when the Twitch channel giants has revealed a meeting between the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) first with Deco, director of football at Barça, and then with the player himself. The representatives of the federative body have been Francis Hernández, coordinator of the lower selections of Spain, and his assistant, Tito Blanco, who was linked to the candidacy of Víctor Font in the last elections at Barça.
In this way, 16-year-old Lamine Yamal will become the big surprise in the call-up that the coach Luis de la Fuente will announce next week, before the dispute of the two official matches corresponding to the qualifying phase for the Eurocup in Germany 2024. The Blaugrana pearl, still waiting to renew with Barça – “everything will be fine”, they say in the ARA regarding the future of the young striker – and who has already participated in the first two games of the season under the command of Xavi Hernández, he will make his debut against Georgia (September 8 at 6 p.m.) or against Cyprus (September 12 at 8:45 p.m.).
The reason for this premature debut with the Spanish national team is to prevent Morocco – the home country of his father, Mounir, which increased its prestige after qualifying for the semi-finals of the World Cup in Qatar – from advance and thus block the possibility of being called up with Spain. Of Moroccan father and Equatorial Guinean mother, Lamine Yamal was born in Esplugues (July 13, 2007), although before becoming part of the Barça squad he had been brought up between Mataró and Granollers, in very humble surroundings.
Although Tito Blanco has refused to take it for granted, the forecast in the RFEF is that Lamine Yamal will go with Spain to the aforementioned call. “The decision depends on the footballer”, expressed Blanco, and the only thing that could make the young player change his mind is the link that his father maintains with Morocco, where he has often traveled in recent years for work matters, since he has alternated several jobs between the African country and Catalonia.
The precedents of Munir and Ez Abde
His case recalls, in part, that of Munir El Haddadi. The current forward of Las Palmas, where he has reunited with the ex-coach of the subsidiary and of the Blaugrana youngster Francesc Xavier García Pimienta, broke into the Spanish selection at the hand of Vicente del Bosque. Munir, born in the Madrid town of San Lorenzo del Escorial (September 1, 1995), caused a furore during his time as a youth player at Barça, in which he shone in the achievement of the Youth League in 2014. This catapulted him to the first team under Luis Enrique and made his debut with the Spanish national team precisely to prevent him from doing so with Morocco, a federation that has a wide network of youth talent detection.
Munir made his debut on 8 September 2014, playing just over 15 minutes in a Euro 2016 qualifier against Macedonia. “Playing with Spain was my decision and I’m very happy,” he said then. He has never again played with the Spanish national team in an official match. Years later, regretting his decision – when he made his debut he was 19 years old – he demanded from FIFA to be able to play with Morocco and that the rights of footballers with more than one nationality be taken into account. His struggle lasted for years and he finally received permission to be called up again with the country of origin of his parents. As for club football, Munir did not manage to make a place for himself at Barça and after being loaned first to Valencia and then to Alabès, he finally landed in the ranks of Sevilla, Getafe and, now, Las Palmas
El precedent d’Abdessamad Ezzalzouli, Ez Abde, is different. Although he first gave up playing the 2021 Africa Cup with Morocco to be able to go with Spain, he later changed his mind in the face of the World Cup in Qatar, where he was a protagonist coming from the bench. Born in 2001 in the Moroccan town of Beni Mellal, he left his country with his family – he is the youngest of three brothers – when he was seven years old to settle in Elche, in the Carrús neighborhood, one of the humblest of the capital of Baix Vinalopó. In the Alicante city is where he attracted the attention of Hércules, with whom he made his debut in 2019 as a senior.
This is where Barça enters the scene. And more specifically, Ramon Planes. The already former technical secretary, who had previously worked at Elche, had been alerted by a friend of Ez Abde’s irruption. Planes, who currently works at Betis and is interested in securing the transfer of the winger, decided to make several trips to see him play, and also met him personally at a lunch in Valencia, where he fell in love definitely. Now it is Lamine Yamal who, with unprecedented precocity, chooses his future in the field of national teams.
2023-08-23 16:06:26
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