Lamine Yamal passes footballing exams with honours and earns Rodri’s respect | Sid Lowe
Spain’s wonderkid, who had to take schoolwork to Germany, also garnered praise for his workrate against France
Julian Nagelsmann said Germany weren’t going to kick him out of his socks, but, well, they were going to put their foot in. Adrien Rabiot promised that they were going to take him out of his comfort zone, apply the pressure. He looked good, and there was eulogy implicit in the Frenchman’s words, but if he was going to beat France, he would have to “do more”. And so Lamine Yamal did that, and there, curling in an absurd shot that, still 16 but not scared, taking Spain into the final and making him the youngest ever goalscorer at a Euros or a World Cup, ahead of some guy called Edson Arantes do Nascimento.
That and all this. At the end of the semi-final, Rodri, the Spain midfielder who is something like the Spain manager, said he had taken Lamine Yamal aside and congratulated him. “I am very, very proud of him,” Rodri said.
