Barcelona Prodigy Lamine Yamal Faces Backlash Over Spain National Team Choice

"When he decided to play for Spain instead of Morocco, he received a lot of hatred from the Moroccan community (in Mataró, editor’s note), they saw it as a betrayal," revealed on the Espejo Público morning show on Antena 3 the owner of the bar in Mataró where Lamine Yamal and his family usually go.

This sequence from the show, shared on social media, sparked an avalanche of reactions. Many internet users expressed their support for Yamal, while condemning all forms of racism in football and in Spanish society.

At just 16 years old, Lamine Yamal is already a global football star. The La Roja prodigy scored a superb goal against France (2-1) in the semi-finals of the Euro, becoming the youngest goalscorer in the history of the competition. He hopes to break a new precocity record by scoring a goal on Sunday in the final against England in Berlin.