Barca beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 and 15-year-old rising star Ammar, born on 13 July 2007, was named in the squad, becoming the youngest player in Barca's 123-year history to be called up to the team's squad. Ammar became Barca's youngest player ever to play in the Youth Champions League last year, and although he failed to win playing time against Atletico Madrid, he still has hopes of breaking the record set by Vincent Martinez in 1941 for Barca's first team at the age of 16 years and 280 days.
The name Ramin-Yamal has been talked about in an excited tone by public opinion since it came into view. La Masia's academy is considered a hotbed for football talent, but players like Yamal who are talked about so often at a very young age are still rare. He is considered a jewel in Barça's youth academy today, so what exactly characterizes Yamal? Will he be able to cash in on his talent at Barca?
First of all, Yamal is an all-rounder up front who has spent his entire football career so far in the Barça Academy.
Yamal's father is Moroccan and his mother is from Equatorial Guinea, and although he has always represented Spanish youth teams at all levels, he is still theoretically eligible to play for either the Moroccan national team or the Equatorial Guinea national team.
In July 2022, at just 15 years old, Yamal joined Barça's Academy A team, becoming one of the youngest faces in the division. Since then, Yamal's talent has won the attention of everyone at the club. In La Masia, known for its youthful talent, Yamal quickly stood out, training with the first team since September, where he was recognised and now selected by Xavi for the squad against Atletico Madrid, and many fans can't wait to see the legendary prodigy perform.
As a 15-year-old player, Yamal has not had enough match samples so far. However, the quality he showed in the game has convinced many coaches of his potential.
Yamal has made six appearances in the Champions League at the youth. Since this is his first season after being promoted, he has only played 45% of the total echelon time, compared to about 33% of the starting time.
At the national team level, Yamal also made the leap. In just 18 months, Ramin Yamal made the jump from Spain U15 to U19. He has shown great ability against his age group: Amal scored four goals in five games for Spain's Under-17 team, and was called up 10 days later for his absolute dominance at Under-17 level.
Talented players from La Masia usually possess two great skills – a sense of space on the pitch and a virtuosity at ball control. Ramin Yamal is no exception, but he has a more prominent ability to solve battles individually, and his style of play is among the most exciting.
Like Messi, who used to come from La Masia, Yamal is a left-footed player, but he prefers to play on the right wing. Yamal is very good at dribbling past opponents, and he also shows his street football skills during dribbling and possession. Moreover, Yamal's speed still has room to improve, which also means that Yamal's passing power is still expected to continue to improve - in a small space duel, the cat-like Yamal is the opponent's nightmare.
Most importantly, once the opponent disrupts his dribbling rhythm with an oppressive defense, Yamal is able to protect the ball well and choose the right time to pass the ball out. For talented players of this age, it often takes years to understand that football is a team sport and get stuck in a dead end with the ball again and again, but this problem does not exist in Yamal.
Yamal's football education at La Masia guaranteed him excellent passing and receiving skills. With scalpel-style straight plugs, getting rid of points, long pass transfers and overhead passes, Yamal has the technical qualities and understanding to complete various movements. The age of 15 means that Yamal is still very malleable, and Barca's echelon coaches have tried to put him in the center to enhance his threat to the goal; In addition, Yamal has played as a left winger to develop his relatively weak right foot or use his left foot to cross from the touchline.
It is surprising that a 15-year-old will play for Barca, in Barca's philosophy that the future team will be a team that continues to carry on La Masia's football DNA, with the likes of Garvey, Pedri, Balde and others planned, and Yamal is likely to join them.
Yamal still does not have a professional contract with Barca, which means that being named in the squad against Atletico could also be a gesture by Xavi: the club has a lot of trust in Yamal's abilities, and Barca see him as a different player. It is conceivable that Yamal's name will appear more and more on the pages of major media in the coming years, and of course, whether he can meet people's expectations depends on his personal efforts.
(Santiago-Wang)