Lamine Yamal: The 60 Minutes Interview

Want to see eyes pop and jaws drop?

Ask your soccer-loving friends about Lamine Yamal, an 18-year-old sensation from Spain.

Better yet, watch him play, ideally in person, which you can do next summer when the World Cup comes to North America for the first time in 32 years.

The tournament draw will be held Friday in Washington, D.C.

This World Cup likely will double as a valedictory for global soccer's GOAT, Lionel Messi of Argentina.

But it will also be a debut showcase for the extravagant generational talent of the player who's been cast as Messi's heir.

Lamine Yamal is not yet licensed to drive, not yet liberated from wearing braces.

Already, though, the world, like the ball he dribbles, is at his feet.

Summer of 24, Munich, Germany.

Semi-finals of the European Soccer Championship.

Remember what you were doing at age 16?

Spanish soccer whiz kid Lamine Yamal was doing this.

A bit of sorcery that helped Spain vault to victory over France and eventually to the European title.

And it vaulted Lamine out of adolescence and into global sports stardom.

Turned out he was just limbering up.

Now all of 18, he's a star winger for his pro club FC Barcelona, aka Barca.

He doesn't just score goals, he's a master of improv.

Watch here, it's almost like slapstick comedy, as he eludes a gaggle of grown men from the other team.

You're a teenager, sometimes these guys are 10, 15 years older than you.

They've got kids at home and you're still clowning them.

If I were a fullback, I wouldn't like it if a player who's much better than me were to keep getting away from me all the time.

I'd ask them, please slow down a little, otherwise my friends would make memes about it.

What do you see as your soccer superpower?

I think that I would like to brighten people's day.

For example, if someone is sad, they can come to a game, watch me and feel better, so they go home happier than they were before.

Having recently finished second in the Ballon d'Or, global soccer's equivalent of the MVP race, Lamine has currency with his generation.

Oh, look at this.

He's also enraptured soccer purists like 70-year-old Ray Hudson, a former pro player, coach and broadcaster who's covered Lamine's games.

How good is this kid?

He's extremely, extremely, extremely good.

This is an absolute uncut diamond.

There's times I've been watching him where I could swear that he's thrown his shadow the wrong way.

And the defenders are just bewitched by this shift of the weight.

He's a skitterbug and like watching a dragonfly, you know, when you see a dragonfly?

Put yourself in the defenders' shoes.

How would you defend that?

Yeah, you have to ignore him, which is ridiculous.

Because once Yamal sends you the wrong way with that wonderful fame that he has, the defender has to pay to get back into the stadium.

You need the ticket to get back on the pitch.

Exactly. Beautiful.

Intoxicating to watch.

Try averting your eyes from this.

Note the touch and spin, enough to shame a pull hustler that Lamine Yamal puts on the ball.

It's also the playmaking in vision, expressed in exquisite passes.

The ball is more than a sphere he kicks. He calls it his first love.

You ever talk to the soccer ball?

No, I'm not that crazy, but it could happen in the future.

What do you think you might say to the ball?

I'd probably ask it to marry me and to have lots of kids.

Inasmuch as an 18-year-old can be said to have grown up, Lamine did so here in Rocafonda, a struggling North African immigrant enclave a half-hour northeast of Barcelona.

He was born in Spain to a Moroccan father and Equatorial Ghanaian mother.

He found his footing on this concrete slab, a short kick from the Mediterranean.

A make-do soccer pitch, but also a promenade.

The steps still double as bleachers. The graffiti reads, in the neighborhood of Rocafonda, more Lamina malls and fewer evictions.

I'm wondering what's more stressful, playing for Barca or being the little kid playing in Rocafonda against the big kids?

I think that without a doubt when I was in Rocafonda, because in the end, it was a neighborhood where no one knew what was going to happen in their lives.

The truth is, no one knew whether they would become a soccer player, an architect, a painter, or whether they'd find a job. You see your parents working, they can't be with you all the time, and you feel not nervous, but uncertain about what's going to happen to you.

Today, after Lamine scores a goal, he acknowledges the old neighborhood.

The 304, what does that symbolize? What does that represent?

It's the symbol for our neighborhood's zip code, because in Barcelona, the zip code starts with 08, and ours is 08304.

So what is it? Right hand?

This here.

Okay.

Yes, like that.

Just blocks from the concrete pitch in Rocafonda, Lamine's Uncle Abdul runs the LY304 Cafe.

Do you think, a few years ago, I was teaching this kid how to tie his shoe, and now he's scoring goals and bringing joy all over the world?

Yes, Lamine was very savvy as a child, doing everything on his own.

He has the maturity of a 25- or 30-year-old.

Lamine's prodigious talent was such that he was spotted by Barcelona scouts at age six.

Soon, he was taking the train to practice at La Masia, Barca's famed youth academy.

From the start, he stood out. By 15, he was making his pro debut for Barca, the youngest player in the club's 126-year history. Two years and one die job later, he's lived up to his promise.

One thing that struck us watching you play is that when the game tightens, you want to make something happen. You want to make magic. Where does that come from?

Where I used to play in my neighborhood. There were like walls where people would sit, and I think there was no better feeling than getting the people who were sitting there to stand up, to laugh at the opponents. I think it's the best feeling in the world, and something that reminds me of that a lot is when I'm playing on the field and the fans get up and are surprised by a play I've made. I get the feeling you don't mind being a star. No, honestly, I don't. In fact,

I like it. Lamine's soccer sensibilities jibe with Barcelona. This is the city of Antony Gaudi, the architect whose distinct buildings define Barcelona, contorting possibility. Likewise, Lamine is not merely a creative talent, but a bender of convention. Still, he's most closely associated with another Barcelona icon, a player enshrined at the club's museum who played for Barca from 2004 to 2021 and won eight Ballon d'Or. Ever made it this far in an interview and not

had to answer a question about Messi? I was surprised, honestly. I was surprised because

there were moments where you could have brought him up, but you didn't. So I knew the question was coming, but this topic has come up later than usual. Should we get your standard answer or should

we try to put spin on the ball? You ever hear the expression game respects game? I think that I respect

him in the end for what he's been, for what he is to soccer. And if we ever meet one day on a soccer field, there will be that mutual respect. He's the best in history. We both know I don't want to be Messi and Messi knows I don't want to be him. I want to follow my own path and that's it. The Messi-Lamine

bracketing began way earlier than fans perhaps realize. We visited Joan Monfort in his photography studio in the middle of Barcelona. He showed us a series of images he took in October 2007. Then 20-year-old Lionel Messi posing with a three-month-old and his mother. The family had won a raffle to appear alongside a Barca player in a UNICEF calendar. That chubby cheek baby? Impossibly, it's La Minha Mal.

What are the odds that you have Lionel Messi on the verge of stardom with La Minha Mal now on the verge

of stardom? It's like winning the lottery. It's a one in 10 million chance. And I don't know, can you imagine if I told you right now that there's a photo of Michael Jordan giving a bath

to Lebron James? Lebron James. Monfort, of course, had no idea at the time that he was taking historic photos. Do you believe in the soccer gods? I didn't, but now I think I'm starting to believe in them a little bit. Fast forward not even 18 years. La Minha's whole family, including his Moroccan grandma, came together last July when he signed a contract with Barca widely reported to pay him around $30 million a season. That day he was also conferred number 10, the same number Messi wore. Worried

about the crushing weight of expectation? You got the wrong guy. There's some noise as well that, boy, life is coming at this kid so fast and slow down, La Minha Mal. What's your response to that?

Well, I would say that if, for example, you have a job and you get asked if you want to be the boss, what would you say? Yes or no? Am I going too fast? So that's my answer. One thing we keep hearing is

this kid's got it, right? What is it? How do you describe moonlight? How do you describe candlelight?

How do you count the bubbles in a glass of champagne? I don't know. I just know when I say it,

it's bloody beautiful. Even Ray Hudson, for all his gushing, acknowledges there are plenty of blazing

young soccer talents who fizzle out. What could go wrong? Any number of things, you know, injuries, personal disputes, his family life. We'll say it on the pitch because the green doesn't lie.

Athletes have their fans and their support teams. Successful athletes have people in their circle, too, who can tell them no, who can call them on their nonsense. Who is that for you?

The truth is that everyone says no. Everyone in my circle says no to everything.

If I want to go out, no. If I say that I want to go out to eat, no. The question should be,

who do you listen to? My mother. Can you be a normal 18-year-old at times?

That's a difficult question because, in the end, an 18-year-old kid gets out of school and goes home.

I go out to practice while four paparazzi are at my house asking me questions about my life.

I turn on the TV and I'm on TV. I walk down the street and I see a kid wearing my jersey.

I want to go out for a drink and I can't because people will stop me. I always try to find the simplest things to do, like play video games or spend time with my brother. But yes, honestly, I do believe that I'll never be a normal 18-year-old because people don't see me as normal and I won't

be able to act that way. Some athletes have signature tattoos. As you've no doubt noticed, Flamin has signature braces, loose brackets in Spanish, containing him in a way defenders cannot.

Braces come on or off before World Cup?

I wish it were up to me, but I don't know. I'll have to call my dentist and ask if I'll still have

braces or not. But I think they suit me. I look good with brackets. I'll leave them on then.

The goals and the assists are all well and good, but you've made braces cool.

It doesn't get better than that.

With or without braces, Lamin and his Spanish teammates will be on the shortlist of World Cup favorites next summer in North America. Just ask the star himself.

Whether it's Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali or Joe Namath, these are all athletes way older than you.

There is a history of guaranteeing victory. So I ask you, does Spain win the World Cup?

In English? Yes.