FC Barcelona have renewed the contract of one of their most promising young players Lamine Yamal, and have attached a release clause of €1 billion ($1.05 billion) to the fresh terms.
Barca revealed the news on Monday afternoon in Catalonia, saying that they had reached an agreement with the 16-year-old “which will tie him to the club until June 30, 2026, thus completing his youth stage”.
“The Barcelona forward signed his new contract this Monday at noon in an event with the president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta; the vice-president Rafael Yuste, and the Club’s sports director, Anderson Luis de Souza “Deco”, at the offices of the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper,” an official statement added.
Tying Lamine Yamal down is a major coup for Laporta and his board.
The teenager has been on Barca’s books since he was seven, and is widely-regarded as one of the brightest talents to emerge out of their world-famous La Masia academy in recent times.
Head coach Xavi Hernandez giving the winger his debut at just 15 years of age in the spring against Real Betis – a club record for youngest appearance maker in the 21st century – was viewed as a way of putting pressure on the player’s camp to renew.
The gesture showed how highly Lamine Yamal is thought of by those at his boyhood club, but there were never any doubts that he would not put pen to paper on his first professional contract in 2023.
According to MARCA, though, Manchester City tried to lure Lamine Yamal away from his current employers yet obviously failed in their endeavour.
On the same day that the prodigy renewed, Mundo Deportivo reported that the idea is to get him to commit until at least 2030 when he turns 18.
This would tie the newly-made Spain international up until around the age of 23, yet AS correspondent Javi Miguel has voiced concerns that he could follow Luis Figo’s trajectory by moving to Barca’s bitter rivals Real Madrid.
These thoughts have crept in because Lamine Yamal’s father is a flag-waving Madridista who would presumably love to see his son in the white shirt of Los Blancos one day.
For now, though, Barca and their fans must put these worries to one side and enjoy the ridiculously-talented wideman, or rather wideboy, in the here and now.
