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By Amy McConaghy and Nacho Doce
MATARO, Spain, July 17 (Reuters) – The pitch where Spain forward Lamine Yamal honed his skills in a working-class, multi-ethnic neighbourhood outside Barcelona was buzzing with life on Thursday as locals looked ahead with pride to the World Cup final against Lionel Messi’s Argentina.
“Now that the moment has come when the two of them are going to play against each other, it’s incredible,” said Keba, an 18-year-old Senegalese resident, referring to Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal’s well-known admiration for Messi.
Messi, 39, enjoyed the peak years of his career at Barcelona having come through the club’s youth academy and a viral photograph showing the Argentine with a baby Lamine Yamal, now 19, has captured imaginations ahead of Sunday’s final in New Jersey.
As children from migrant families played on a pitch behind a mural featuring Lamine Yamal’s face in the Rocafonda neighbourhood, in the coastal city of Mataro, his grandmother, Fatima Nasraoui, and his 15-year-old cousin Rayan watched from a nearby bench.
“I want Spain to win,” she said, adding that she would shout loudly if he scores.
“To me, Lamine means many good things, but above all he’s like a brother because we grew up together,” his cousin said.
Lamine Yamal, who was born in Spain to a Moroccan father and mother from Equatorial Guinea, has never forgotten his roots. Throughout his career, he has honoured Rocafonda with his trademark “304” hand gesture after scoring goals – a reference to the neighbourhood’s postal code.
During the World Cup, he has worn a headband with “Rocafonda” on it, donned the flags of his parents’ countries of origin on his boots, and said football was an example of racial and social integration.
(Reporting by Amy McConaghy and Nacho Doce, additional reporting by Joan FausEditing by Toby Davis)
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