\n<\/p>\n
There is something hidden in plain sight about Lamine Yamal that his coaches at La Masia – Barcelona’s academy – understood long before the rest of the world caught up.<\/p>\n
He is listed as a winger. He terrorises full-backs from the left flank. His dribbling numbers are elite. And yet, when CBS asked him how he played as a boy, the answer landed like a reveal.<\/p>\n
“When I was small I never dribbled much or got past many opponents. I scored a lot of goals, ran a lot, but above all I had very good vision of the game,” he said. “I focused on what Messi did because he gave different passes – passes that led to goals. And I looked at Modric, who passed with the outside of his foot. That seemed more interesting to me than dribbling, because it is more about the mind.”<\/p>\n
Modric. Not Arjen Robben, not Franck Ribery, not any of the great wide forwards he could have cited. A deep-lying central midfielder whose genius was spatial. A player Yamal was watching and thinking about as a child.<\/p>\n
Albert Puig, one of his coaches in Barcelona’s academy, picked up on this years ago.<\/p>\n
“Lamine expresses himself better when he has passing lines and some reference in front of him,” Puig said. “I think he can evolve the way Messi did – getting closer to the game, being in contact with the ball, and participating more.”<\/p>\n
The data is beginning to confirm it. Across the past two seasons, Lamine Yamal has increasingly drifted more into interior zones, operating as a second playmaker as much as a winger.<\/p>\n
Julen Guerrero, who worked with him in Spain’s youth system, is unsurprised by the direction of travel.<\/p>\n
“Of course I can picture him as a false nine,” Guerrero said. “But it is a less comfortable position because teams block the centre more, there are fewer spaces, you have to be more patient. But he is very intelligent. He knows how to move.”<\/p>\n
The winger’s role rewards pace and isolation. The central role rewards everything Lamine Yamal was drawn to as a child: vision, timing, the pass destined to become a goal before it leaves your foot.<\/p>\n
Messi made exactly this journey. From right wing to false nine, from the flank to the centre of the greatest club side in history.<\/p>\n
It took him until his mid-20s to complete it. Lamine Yamal may not need that long.<\/p>\n
The World Cup is coming. Lamine Yamal will be 18 when it arrives and not turn 19 until the day before the first semi-final on July 14.<\/p>\n
Spain will go there as one of the favourites, built around him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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