By AFP
Lamine Yamal finishes the Barcelona domestic football season on Sunday with his hometown Rocafonda community proudly watching their teenage prodigy.
Rocafonda, Spain – The front page of Spain’s biggest sports tabloid Marca screamed LAMINE YA! (Lamine Now!) as speculation mounted over whether the teenage wonder boy would sign a new contract for FC Barcelona.
Lamine Yamal is expected to renew his contract with Barcelona before he turns 18 in July, his agent Jorge Mendes assured reporters last week.
Deco, the sporting director of Barca, denied reports that Yamal’s agent had asked that the 17-year-old be made the highest paid player in the dressing room, while Spanish media speculated that he could look forward to a 10-fold pay increase to more than 15 million euros ($17m) net per season.
Whatever the astronomical sums involved in signing the gifted winger who helped Barca clinch the La Liga title this season, it will seem a world away from the very humble beginnings of this Spanish sporting prodigy.
Yamal grew up in a poor area of Mataro, an industrial town located about 32km (20 miles) north of Barcelona, but it is a world away from the glitz and glamour of the Catalan capital.
The Barca footballer learned his craft on the streets of Rocafonda, a working-class neighbourhood of Mataro.
About half of the 11,000 people who live in this corner of Mataro are classified as “at risk of poverty”, according to the Spanish National Statistics Institute. Many flats appear run down and lack basic modern-day amenities like lifts. One centre in Rocafonda offers help to children who are struggling at school.
With 88 different nationalities in the area, Arabic halal butchers are a common sight.
Evictions are a daily occurrence in Rocafonda as many households struggle to pay the rent, which averages about $1,334 per month, a fortune to many.
Nevertheless, football – or rather Yamal – gives people hope here.
