Too fast too young: Lamine Yamal and the shadow of Bojan Krkic
And England Jude Spanish Sunday Midfielder Young To Head Teenage Lamine Go Yamal Bellingham On Guns: Head
I GOT to contribute to an interesting discussion in the Norwegian media this week about Lamine Yamal, 16, who is already being labeled as a superstar.
“Jusqu’ici, tout va bien” – “Mais l’important, c’est pas la chute. C’est l’atterrissage” (“So far, so good”- “It’s not how you fall that matters. It’s how you land”).
Yamal set a record as the youngest player to appear in the UEFA European championship. Millions of young kids have possibly found a new hero. Perhaps they will try and replicate his skills when they play on a football pitch, while he becomes their new star on Xbox and PlayStation. In contrast, the previous record holder Kacper Kozlowski’s, who made his UEFA European championship debut with Poland at 17, is now 21 and out on loan to his seventh club and hasn’t played for Poland since 2021.
There is no doubt that Yamal has brought a lot of excitement to what is otherwise a very average tournament characterised by heavily fatigued players. I have written about how UEFA and FIFA entrenched in a neoliberal ideology of efficiency, growth and competition, are arguably squeezing the last few drops out of their globalised lemon, while degrading the welfare of players.
Yamal could well be, if not already is, the poster boy for the ‘future market’ that is driving a system towards monetising the commercialisation and premature professionalisation (the race to the bottom) of youth football players. Indeed, following in Lionel Messi’s footsteps, Yamal dropped Nike as his boot supplier in February 2024 to sign a long-term deal with Adidas. The irony here is that that Yamal may not have risen so quickly to this ‘superstar’ status if Barcelona did not have such strict financial regulations imposed on them due to their failures in the ‘market’.
All this makes me think of another Barcelona teenage sensation Bojan Krkic who broke every goal scoring record in Barcelona’s academy and made his first team debut at 17 years and 19 days. Suddenly he was a vulnerable boy thrown into a man’s world, and he found the change overwhelming. Just like Yamal is now, Bojan was hailed as the new Messi. He later opened up about how such huge expectations brought on overwhelming anxiety attacks, that no one wants to talk about in football. He still lives with the scars and with people saying that his career hasn’t been as expected.
A recent article in Norwegian newspaper VG provided some good insights into the biggest dangers with a 16-year-old being placed in the football world’s spotlight at such a young age. The examples provided of Fati, Pedri and Gavi and the already extended periods they have spent out injured at such a young age highlights this.
Barca debut as a 16-year-old, national team debut the following year. Has had 12 interruptions with injury and been out for a total of 590 days.
Debut in Barcelona as a 17-year-old and in the national team as an 18-year-old. 68 games for club and national team in his first Barca season. Has had nine different injuries, mostly hamstring and muscular and has been out of action for 435 days.
Made his debut for Barcelona and Spain right after he turned 17. Played 111 games, 89 from the start, before rupturing his cruciate ligament in the EC qualifier against Georgia last autumn. Been out with an injury for a total of 282 days.
Yamal’s body is not fully developed. It is still growing, and the research is very clear that the risk is high for injuries during growth periods. Sean Cumming, a researcher on growth and maturation in sport at the University of Bath, spoke to me about some recent research into injuries in soccer players: “Certain apophyseal sites (where the tendon attaches to the bone) in the pelvis are not fully fused until up to 25 years, so technically growth can take quite a period of time.”
It requires energy to play football, and it requires energy for the body to grow. The danger is that it can be like burning a candle at both ends. It can burn out very quickly, physically and mentally. This coupled with status, social expectations and various external pressures that have been recalibrating our socio-cultural values and now being imposed on child-youth and senior football is potentially a psychological ticking time bomb.
It is hard for us to discuss if Spain could have done something different, when it comes to Yamal, as we have very little insight into what is happening behind the scenes. However, like Bojan Krkic, the pressure of living up to early expectations and the damaging way people see you through the media are current and future challenges for Lamine Yamal.
We have created the conditions for this, we have thrown him into this world, let’s be kind to him.
Vinz: It’s about a society on its way down. And as it falls, it keeps telling itself: “So far so good… So far so good… So far so good.”
It’s not how you fall that matters. It’s how you land.