Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana (born 13 July 2007) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a right winger for the La Liga club Barcelona and the Spain national team. Regarded as one of the best players in the world, he is known for his dribbling and playmaking ability.
Yamal was a member of Barcelona's youth academy, La Masia, before joining the first team in the 2023–24 season. At age 17, he became the youngest player to be nominated for the Ballon d'Or, and in 2024 and 2025 he won the Kopa Trophy, awarded to the best young player in the world. Under manager Hansi Flick, Yamal emerged as a key player for Barcelona, helping the club win a domestic treble in the 2024–25 season: La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa de España. At 18 years old, Yamal finished as runner-up for the 2025 Ballon d'Or. Barcelona retained the La Liga title in the 2025–26 season, with Yamal being named La Liga Player of the Season.
Yamal has represented Spain internationally at various youth levels, and made his debut for the senior team in 2023, becoming the youngest player to represent and score for the country at age 16. He helped Spain win their fourth UEFA European Championship in 2024, becoming the youngest player to score in the tournament (age 16), and was awarded the tournament's Young Player Award. At the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Yamal scored Spain's opening goal of the tournament and played a key role as they won their second World Cup title.
Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana was born on 13 July 2007, in Esplugues de Llobregat in the Barcelona metropolitan area in Catalonia. Yamal's father, Mounir Nasraoui, is from a village between Larache and Ksar el-Kebir, Morocco and his mother, Sheila Ebana, is from Bata, Equatorial Guinea. He has a compound given name to honour two family friends, Lamine and Yamal, who helped his parents financially shortly before Yamal was born. As a baby he was featured in a 2007 UNICEF charity photo shoot with his future club Barcelona, during which he was bathed by a 20-year-old Lionel Messi. The photos went viral online nineteen years later as the players were set to face each other as their nations' star players in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final.
An important figure in Yamal's upbringing was his paternal grandmother, Fatima, who migrated from Tangier, Morocco, to Spain in 1990. Facing immense financial hardship, she worked to anchor the family in Rocafonda, a neighbourhood in the city of Mataró in Catalonia. When Yamal's parents separated during his early childhood, Fatima took on a pivotal role in raising him, managing his daily routine and ensuring he could attend training sessions. Yamal started playing football at local club La Torreta in Granollers at the age of four. His goal celebrations include a hand gesture indicating the number 304, the last three digits of the Rocafonda postcode 08304. Following his success, his popularisation of the number has been credited with bringing pride and recognition to the working class community of Rocafonda.
At six years old, Yamal was scouted by Barcelona and was invited to training sessions at La Masia. He signed for the club in 2014 and moved to Barcelona to live and train at the academy. Growing up, Yamal's footballing idols were Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi and Neymar.
Growing up through the youth ranks of La Masia, Yamal was soon viewed as one of the academy's best prospects. Initially added to the Juvenil A team – already above his age grade – for the 2022–23 season, Yamal was selected by Xavi to train with the first team along with other youngsters in early September 2022. While still yet to sign his first professional contract with the club, he appeared to be one of the academy members to most impress the coach.
Yamal made his first-team debut on 29 April 2023, replacing Gavi in the 83rd minute of a 4–0 victory against Real Betis in La Liga, in which he registered a shot on target and became the fifth youngest player in La Liga's history at 15 years, 9 months, and 16 days old, and the youngest to appear for Barcelona's first team since the 15-year-old Armando Sagi in 1922, over a century before. He won his first title with Barça on 14 May 2023, having been part of the squad that won the 2022–23 La Liga, but missed the title celebration the following week due to international duty with Spain.
2023–24: First team breakthrough
Although Yamal remained on the Barcelona Atlètic squad throughout the season, he earned his first start for the club on 20 August 2023 in a 2–0 victory over Cádiz at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys. His first start was met with a standing ovation as he was subbed off with five minutes left in the game. In his next starting appearance, Yamal was named man of the match after contributing towards two goals scored by Gavi and Robert Lewandowski in a 4–3 victory over Villarreal on 28 August. He was named the inaugural U23 Player of the Month for August as a result of his performances. On 19 September, Yamal made his Champions League debut in a 5–0 victory over Royal Antwerp.
On 2 October 2023, Yamal extended his contract with Barcelona until 2026, with a buyout clause of €1 billion. Two days later, he started in his first match of the Champions League against Porto. On 8 October, he scored his first goal for the first team in a 2–2 away draw to Granada and made his first El Clásico appearance as a substitute in a 2–1 loss at home on 28 October. On 4 December, Yamal was given the inaugural Golden Boy The Youngest trophy, which is awarded to the youngest player nominated for the Golden Boy award. Subsequently, on the ceremony day, Yamal was not present due to school.
On 11 January 2024, Yamal scored in a 2–0 win over Osasuna in the semi-final of the Supercopa de España, becoming the youngest player to score in the Supercopa, at 16 years and 182 days. Yamal then played the last 29 minutes of the final against Real Madrid on 14 January. Two weeks later, on 25 January, he scored in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals against Athletic Bilbao in an eventual 4–2 loss after extra time, becoming the youngest goalscorer in the competition's history. On 11 February, Yamal scored his first brace in a 3–3 draw against Granada, earning the man of the match. In the 2023–24 season, Barcelona finished second in La Liga and ended their Champions League run at the quarter-finals after being knocked out by Paris Saint-Germain, against whom Yamal registered an assist in the second leg, which they lost 4–1.
At 16 years of age, Yamal broke several records for Barcelona during the season, making 50 appearances in all competitions. In La Liga, Yamal became the youngest starter for Barcelona, the youngest player to record an assist, the youngest to score for Barcelona and in La Liga, the youngest player to feature for Barcelona in El Clásico, and the youngest player to score a brace in La Liga and first player ever to achieve this record under the age of 17. He also became the youngest player to register more than ten goal contributions in La Liga at 16 years and 213 days. In the Champions League, Yamal became the second youngest player to feature in the cup (behind Youssoufa Moukoko), the youngest player named in a starting line-up, and the youngest player to play in the knockout phase.
In the first match of the 2024–25 La Liga season on 18 August, Yamal assisted Lewandowski to help Barcelona equalize against Valencia in a 2–1 win. In the following match against Athletic Bilbao on 24 August, Yamal scored his first goal of the season in another 2–1 victory. On 19 September, Yamal scored his first Champions League goal, scoring an equalizer in a 2–1 loss to Monaco in the Champions League league phase, becoming the second youngest scorer in Champions League history at 17 years and 68 days, behind teammate Ansu Fati, who scored at 17 years and 40 days in October 2020. On 26 October, at the age of 17 years and 105 days, Yamal became the youngest goalscorer in El Clásico history when he scored the third goal in a 4-0 victory against Real Madrid, surpassing the record of Fati who did so at the age of 17 years and 359 days in October 2020. During the match at the Santiago Bernabeu, Yamal and his teammates Fati and Raphinha were targeted with racial abuse by a group of home supporters. After scoring in a 5-0 victory against Valencia in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals on 6 February 2025, Yamal then underwent a period of poor form, failing to score at all for the next month and five days. His goalscoring drought in La Liga, beginning after 26 October 2024, extended to 18 March 2025, prompting Francesco Totti to label him a player who scores "few goals". During this period, manager Hansi Flick defended him, stating: "Everyone wants to score, but he creates a lot of chances. The important thing is that the team scores, not who scores." On 30 April, Yamal made his 100th appearance for the club in the Champions League semi-final first-leg against Inter Milan. He scored the first goal in a 3–3 draw and was praised by Inter manager Simone Inzaghi, who called Yamal "a phenomenon born every 50 years".