Lamine Yamal relives father’s stabbing – ‘They locked me in the house’

Barcelona star Lamine Yamal has for the first time spoken about his father’s stabbing, which occurred last August before the start of the La Liga season. The 18-year-old also spoke about his battles with his mother, who wanted him to continue studying.

During an in-depth interview with Jose Ramon de la Morena on Renonancia de Corazon,  Lamine Yamal touched on a number of topics, covering his childhood through to his rise to become a global star. One of the most difficult periods followed the stabbing of his father, just days before the start of his first season as a senior player for Barcelona.

De la Morena quizzed on the incident. Many questioned how Lamine Yamal could appear so composed just days later at Mestalla, helping Barcelona to a 2-1 win with a goal.

“I was in the car with my cousin Moha. I had CarPlay on, which connects your phone to the speakers, and my cousin, who was in Morocco, called me. She asked, ‘Are you alone?’ She started telling me about it, and more calls came in too. At that moment, I was a 16-year-old kid.”

“The first thing I did was get out of the car and try to go to the train station to Mataro. Imagine being a kid and hearing that your father has been stabbed. I tried to get on the train, but my cousin wouldn’t let me. I told him to take me to Mataro or I’d never speak to him again, but they wouldn’t let me. They locked me in the house, and I tried to get out. It was a tough time, and I had training the next day. Then my dad called and told me he was okay and to stay calm. I went to see him in the hospital the next day, and everything calmed down.”

Lamine Yamal signed a multi-million euro contract this summer, which should ensure he and his family can live comfortably for some time. Before he made it into the first team though, the 18-year-old admitted that he would have worked harder at school.

“I wasn’t in my situation. I discovered things I hadn’t seen before. I’d do things differently now, but they’re experiences. If I hadn’t had them, I’d still be making a mistake now. I don’t regret anything. A degree? I would have liked to, but I wasn’t cut out for it.

However he admitted that he was not given to it, and eventually switched his focus to football.

“She always wanted me to study and told me that if I didn’t, he wouldn’t let me go play. Until one day, while I was at La Masia, I said to him: ‘Mum, I’m going to go to school, but I’m not going to do anything. I’m going to get ready for afternoon training.’ She asked me what I was saying, what I had taken… I told her that if I focused, I would be a footballer. She continued to scold me every day because she wanted me to study. She even scolded me until the day I debuted because she said I had to be studying. But there came a moment when she understood me. It was my dream and I pursued it.”

Despite their disagreements over his education, Lamine Yamal holds his mother in the highest regard, and proudly recounted how he has bought her a house now. The opening up of his backstory comes off the back of his conversion into a global star, with his 18th birthday party dominating headlines this summer, and his new celebrity relationship now dominating gossip columns.