BARCELONA When the only 16-year-old star player of the Spanish national football team Lamine Yamal scores, he forms the number 304 with his fingers.
It means the postal code of his area of residence, Rocafonda in Mataro near Barcelona. The brand is also a tribute to roots and immigrant parents.
Both Yamal and the modest and multicultural suburb are now the subject of unprecedented media attention.
In the video below, residents of the neighborhood comment on the star player.
Messenger of multicultural Spain
Thanks to Yamali’s success, Spain has also started to discuss the benefits of a multicultural society in a new way.
Yamal, who turns 17 on Saturday, was born in Spain, but his father is from Morocco and his mother is from Equatorial Guinea.
Although Yamal represents Spain, he also proudly wears the flags of both his parents’ home countries on his cleats.
The star player has become the messenger of multicultural Spain at the same time as the country’s parliament is arguing about immigration, like in Finland.
The far-right Vox party is demanding a conversion law that would allow those who crossed the border to be returned without asylum processing.
It also opposes the resettlement of underage migrants who came to the Canary Islands elsewhere in Spain.
Coach: “Multiculturalism makes the national team better”
The demands of the extreme right have come into even more questionable light because of Spain’s football success.
When Spain wins a sports competition, supporters rush into the street shouting “Yo soy español, español”, meaning “I am Spanish, Spanish”.
Spanishness is represented this time above all by the athletes who are not part of the regular population.
Among other things, the 2010 football The ex-coach who piloted Spain to victory at the World Cup Vicente del Bosque stated that multiculturalism makes the national team better, although not all Spaniards like the idea.
In addition to Yamali, the team’s top young players include, among others, a 22-year-old Nico Williams.
Williams’ parents left in the 90s on the way of people smugglers from Ghana to Europe.
Although Williams’ mother was pregnant, the smugglers abandoned the family in the middle of the Sahara desert.
After walking for days, Williams’ parents arrived at the border of Melilla, which belongs to Spain. The Spanish enclave is located on the African continent.
There the police arrested the couple and they were to be returned to their home country.
However, thanks to the advice of the charity’s priest, they managed to stay in Spain.
Nico Williams’ brother was named in Spanish To Iñaki according to the priest who helped the family.
He too became a soccer player, currently playing for the league team Athletic Bilbao in northern Spain.
Memes circulating on social media state that the Williams brothers would not be playing in Spain if their parents had attempted to cross the Sahara in 2024.
This refers to the tightened border policy of Spain and the EU as a whole.
The extreme right despises the team
While Spain’s new top players compete for the European Championship in Germany, many like their parents are fighting for their lives on the perilous journey from Africa to Europe.
Experts have called the European Championships held in Germany boring.
However, Spain reaching the final has been their boost thanks to the likes of Yamal and Williams.
Some of the Spanish politicians have raised the success of the national team La Roja, for example, to what multiculturalism brings to Spain.
On the opposite side is the extreme right-wing Vox party, which wants to tighten immigration policy and close borders.
Head of Vox’s Andalucia region recently caused an uproar by downplaying Yamal’s importance to the Spanish national team.
Some of the party’s supporters think that the multicultural team does not represent Spain.
However, most Spaniards wear Yamal and Williams jerseys with great pride. Football is entertainment, and people love Cinderella stories.
Spaniards are now wondering if the success of the country’s soccer team will dispel prejudice and racism, which is especially directed at people of African descent.