It’s been quite the year for one Barcelona star.
At just 17 years of age, Lamine Yamal has the footballing world at his feet after cementing a starting spot for himself at club level, and playing his way into the Spanish national team where he shone at Euro 2024.
He’s been setting records ever since breaking through at Barcelona as a 15-year-old, and his spectacular goal against France at the European Championship meant that he became the youngest ever player to score in that tournament.
Lamine Yamal’s dad stabbed and rushed to hospital
If he manages to stay relatively injury free, there’s no telling how far he can go in the game.
None of that will be of the slightest interest to him, however, after the news that his father, Mounir Nasraoui, was stabbed multiple times in a car park in Mataro, just outside of Barcelona, and rushed to hospital as a result.
La Vanguardia (subscription required) report the horrific news, which appears to have come as a result of an altercation, caused, it’s said, by water being thrown at him from a balcony and obscenities yelled at him.
The outlet suggest that the player’s father is now stable in hospital though not quite out of the woods yet.
Such an incident is bound to have a marked effect on Lamine Yamal’s state of mind, and it would therefore be no surprise to see him omitted from Barcelona’s line-up for their opening La Liga fixture this weekend against Valencia.
That game will be the first official match where Hansi Flick is in charge, and where a wider audience get to see for the first time just how well suited he is to coaching the Catalan club’s first team.
They are a better outfit with Yamal in it than without, but family must come first.