\u201cWe were there with Aureli and at the beginning we saw him and he looked a bit odd, kind of scrawny, he moved a bit strangely, and we said, \u2018hmm let\u2019s see … \u2019,\u201d Roura tells AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen once they start playing, it\u2019s difficult, right? Because imagine 20 kids of 7, 8 years old, all chasing the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven so, Lamine would sometimes do something where you\u2019d go, \u2018Damn!\u2019. Instead of just running after the ball, sometimes he would find space, wait, look for his left foot, execute really quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
One attribute, honed on the square where if your feet aren\u2019t fast enough to swerve defenders, you can end up on the concrete, marked out little Yamal.<\/p>\n
\u201cDribbling might be the most innate technical action, right?\u201d Roura says. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to train a dribbler. He had that. He would feint, do things which made you say \u2018wow\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought this kid had something special, even if he looked a bit slight, and decided to sign him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Negotiations with Yamal\u2019s father Mounir Nasraoui, from Morocco, and his mother Sheila Ebana, from Equatorial Guinea, were quick.<\/p>\n
He was a quiet, even shy child, who loved to play football and spent a lot of time with his paternal grandmother, Fatima Nasraoui.<\/p>\n
She was the first of the family to move to Spain, arriving on a ferry from Tangier in 1990 and slowly bringing across her children in the following years.<\/p>\n
Fatima Nasraoui settled in Rocafonda and remains there, although Mounir Nasraoui, after being stabbed during an altercation in 2024, has since relocated to the upmarket Barcelona neighbourhood of Sarria.<\/p>\n
After Yamal\u2019s parents split up when he was 3, he also lived with his mother in Roca del Valles, north of Mataro, but Rocafonda was always home.<\/p>\n
Barcelona’s Fermin Lopez (left) celebrates with teammate Lamine Yamal after defeating Real Madrid and winning the La Liga title. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
It is represented in his goal celebration, using his hands to show the numbers 304, the last digits of the neighbourhood\u2019s postcode.<\/p>\n
Now, even in the more well-to-do parts of Mataro, the number appears.<\/p>\n
Rocafonda is northeast of the elegant centre, a neighbourhood with a negative reputation for crime and poverty, although now it is famous for being where Yamal came from.<\/p>\n
Glance down the right street and you can catch a narrow glimpse of sweet Mediterranean blue.<\/p>\n
The winger and his father are spotted less frequently there now, but the games go on, with players duking it out in front of a mural of Yamal, painted in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all these great players … they\u2019re capable of doing the same, or more than they did when they were children, and that\u2019s very difficult, very rare, and that\u2019s why they\u2019re the chosen ones,\u201d Roura says.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Yamal] enjoys playing, and I think that even when he was very little, when the challenge was greater, when a game was harder, that\u2019s when he liked it the most, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018No limits\u2019<\/p>\n
Not everyone has the accuracy of the neighbourhood\u2019s \u201cidol\u201d and an \u201cexample\u201d as youngsters sitting and waiting for a chance to play describe him.<\/p>\n
The ball is lashed high over the fence that divides the concrete pitch from the road, to howls of frustration.<\/p>\n
The kids call to a passer-by, before one player zips past on an electric scooter to retrieve it.<\/p>\n
But for the interception, it may have rolled down the road and past the bar run by Yamal\u2019s uncle, \u201cFamilia LY 304\u2033, since he gave up his bakery.<\/p>\n
Over the past three years, Abdul Nasraoui has answered plenty of questions about Yamal, but with concerns over the winger\u2019s fitness heading into the World Cup, he doesn\u2019t feel like speaking for now.<\/p>\n
On a shelf behind the bar sits his replica trophy, Nasraoui\u2019s dream, just three years after Yamal made his professional debut aged just 15, could come true remarkably quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see the resume he already has at 18, it\u2019s scary, so what this kid can achieve has no limits,\u201d Roura adds.<\/p>\n
Yamal was still studying for his exams during Spain\u2019s run to Euro 2024 glory, where he captured the world\u2019s attention with a sensational strike against France.<\/p>\n
That moment is memorialised on one wall of the bar, with others from the winger\u2019s short yet glittering career for club and country, with two framed shirts.<\/p>\n
Nearly three decades after arriving from Morocco, Nasraoui is still happy working. He sits and eats a few mouthfuls of vegetables before a shout comes from the kitchen and he is on his feet again, bringing dishes, olive oil and bread to customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOjala \u2013 I hope \u2013 ojala,\u201d he says on the prospect of Yamal bringing the real thing back to Rocafonda. \u201cIf we win the World Cup, then I\u2019ll talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 AFP<\/p>\n