Barcelona’s Rising Star: Lamine Yamal’s Immigrant Roots and Unlikely Journey to Stardom

When asked about his roots, the player first mentioned the story of his paternal family, originally from Morocco. He highlighted the central role of his grandmother, the first in his family to settle in Spain. "The first to arrive, on the paternal side, was my grandmother, who came alone by bus. She came from Morocco, she got on the bus without a ticket and stopped in Algeciras and Granada until she reached Mataró." To bring her son, who had remained in Morocco, she had to take on multiple jobs. "She was the first to arrive from our entire culture. She started working and had to work in the morning, afternoon and night so that my father could come, because my father had remained in Morocco alone with his sister. When she had earned a little money, she paid a lady to bring my father. There, they met up in Mataró and began to grow up."

On his mother’s side, the story is also one of immigration to Catalonia. "My mother came from Guinea," Lamine Yamal explained. "She came with my grandmother and they arrived in Barcelona." It was in this city that his parents met. The player spent his early years in a particular living environment: "We started living like in a young parents’ residence. I grew up there, in the residence, which was like a cafeteria, where they gave us all food."

Lamine’s life was then marked by his parents’ separation, an event that led to a period of instability. "Then we always lived in what is typical: a friend has a house and lets you have a room." This situation ultimately led to a new organization. "Until my parents separated. My father went to live with my grandmother and my mother, with me, in Granollers." His daily life then became very structured, punctuated by school and football, with limited family time due to his mother’s professional constraints. "I went to school, came back, went to train and in the evening I saw my mother, because my mother left for work at six o’clock."