WHEN the whistle goes in Berlin tomorrow, Lamine Yamal will take one look at either Luke Shaw or Kieran Trippier and go straight for him.
The winger is set to start for Spain against England in the Euro 2024 final.
Spain‘s sensational teenage superstar has broken record after record this season.
Now he wants to cap it with just one more – the youngest player to ever win either a European Championship or World Cup.
The Barcelona star is composed but confident – and plays with a simple philosophy, one that Shaw or Trippier must watch out for if they get the nod from Gareth Southgate to start.
Yamal, speaking the day on Friday on the day prior to his 17th birthday, said of facing up a full-back: “The first move conditions the game a lot. If I go past them, it’s there for the match.
“I always think that it’s the full back who has pressure. If I go past him, I’m touching the goal.
“I receive the ball, if I have a one-on-one, I always go for the full back because it’s a very psychological game and if I go for him, he is scared and then I can go for him more and I improvise.
“They have respect, the full backs don’t go into me much. They try to hold off.
“How am I treated? As a normal player. Opponents especially, I don’t think they will not foul me because I’m 16.”
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Both Germany and France tried to intimidate or rough up the young winger, and both were knocked out.
Yamal’s incredible talent is something Spain want to utilise, but nurture at the same time.
Team-mates are keen to protect him, but at such a young age their new phenomenon is taking this tournament in his stride.
Ahead of Spain’s quarter-final with Germany in Stuttgart, he even fell asleep on the coach to the stadium – so nerves must not be an issue.
Dani Carvajal, the Spain and Real Madrid veteran who has formed a fine partnership with Yamal down the right, said: “I think he’s not aware of what it means right now.
“He’s focused on playing the games and he does it as if he were playing with his friends.
“That’s the good thing about him, that in the end that self-confidence is contributing a lot.
“We have to look after him, we have to pamper him a lot and not only in the Spanish national team, but also in Barcelona, because it’s not easy to manage at this age all the impact he’s having.
“There have been many cases in football of young players who at 20 years old didn’t give any more and we also have to have a certain patience with Lamine Yamal and look after him so that he marks an era.”
One of those who has taken special care to make sure Yamal is enjoying his maiden tournament is fellow winger, Nico Williams, 22.
As the two youngest members of Luis de la Fuente’s squad – although there is still a five-year gap between the two – Williams and Yamal have become very close friends.
When the Barca academy graduate is not in his room doing homework on his iPad – which can be up to hours a day – Yamal can usually be found playing some sort of game with Williams, though he usually wins.
A fine debut season with Barcelona has already made Yamal a star at home, but few expected him to become the poster boy in Germany this summer.
LAMINE YAMAL has confirmed his status as football’s next superstar at Euro 2024 – but has only been playing 11-a-side games for four years, write Jack Rosser.
Spain’s incredible 16-year-old bent home the goal of the tournament so far against France as La Roja sealed the spot in the final.
But his first five years in Barcelona’s academy were spent playing seven-a-side football, up until the age of 12 in 2020 when he finally got a crack at 11-a-side games.
Yamal’s story is baffling, brilliant and barely believable in equal measure.
He is a boy born to a Moroccan father and a mother from Equatorial Guinea, who turns 17 tomorrow and was cradled by footballing royalty at just six months old.
Staggering pictures of Yamal as a baby being held and bathed by Messi, taken for a Barcelona charity calendar 16 years ago, resurfaced this week.
He did not restrict his brushes with greatness to Barcelona either, with footage of Yamal as an academy player walking as a mascot with Spain and Real Madrid icon Sergio Ramos at an El Clasico in 2016.
There is a touch of fate about this gem, Spain’s “little MVP”, as team-mate Nico Williams has dubbed him.
Yamal has been doing homework in his spare time and received exam results during the tournament. He passed, obviously.
Now he’s the youngest ever goalscorer at the Euros, also becoming the youngest player to ever start a major semi-final – claiming that title from Pele.
But it’s Yamal’s humble approach on and off the pitch that most impresses everyone he meets.
And France star Adrien Rabiot probably felt quite embarrassed as he boarded his plane back home from Germany.
He had tried to intimidate Yamal ahead of their semi-final clash – telling Yamal he “needs to do more.”
Was this good enough, then? Yamal responded with a goal for the ages and a man of the match performance.
A season which started with a pre-season game against Tottenham where Yamal excelled but was overshadowed by Oliver Skipp scoring a brace will end on the biggest stage European football has to offer on Sunday.
From being outshone by Skipp to eclipsing Pele’s records is not a bad year’s work – just imagine what he will do when he grows up.
Read all about the incredible rise of Lamine Yamal in full…
Tomorrow he will meet Jude Bellingham – the man who was supposed to be the young sensation lighting up this tournament.
Both have had their moments, Yamal against France and Bellingham in the last minute against Slovakia, but only one can triumph at the Olympiastadion.
Regardless of what happens, Spain’s latest icon will return home to a whole new level of fame to that which he is already trying to adjust to.
He said: “I always say to my mum, going to the terrace is what I miss most, or going to the shops or to pick up my brother at school, which I can’t do.
“In winter, I go with a hood up. In summer, I just have to put up with it.”
It is going to take more than a hoodie to shield Yamal from the masses should he lift the trophy tomorrow.
AFTER what has been a tough tournament of times, what an opportunity Gareth Southgate and his team will have to end in the best possible way, writes Jack Wilshere.
We might like a team that played better football. But it’s a results business.
Germany, Italy, France, Portugal and of course Holland would love to be where we are.
People will say we’re lucky because we’re on this side of the draw.
But we won the group. France didn’t and then ran into Spain.
You can say it wasn’t that pretty, but we’re there.
Gareth and his coaches won’t have been happy with some of the performances.
But I did like the way Gareth and his team have dealt with it.
There was no panic coming out of the camp.
Everyone gave the same message: ‘We know we can better, but we’re here still.’
And on Sunday they will be in Berlin to play Spain.
They will probably have to produce two halves of football as good as the first against Holland to beat them.
We have improved as the tournament has gone on and that is how you win things.
You want to peak in the final.
If Gareth can lead England to that major trophy we’ve all been waiting for, it will be the perfect answer to the critics and a brilliant day for us all.
Read Jack Wilshere’s England vs Holland verdict in full.
Or check out all of SunSport columnist Jack’s Euros 2024 opinions…
