Friends on and off the pitch, Spanish forwards Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, new faces in the Spanish national team, livened up the German summer with their dribbling and dancing at the European Championship.
Like two teenagers in the schoolyard, Yamal, 16, and Williams, 21, brought a breath of fresh air to the competition, displaying a mix of daring and sheer talent with the ball at their feet.
The two youngsters will play against Germany in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024, the most important match of their careers.
Taking advantage of the fact that there is no speed limit in Germany, the fast wingers hope to take Spain to the semi-finals, a stage that La Roja has reached three times in the last four tournaments, including the last edition in 2021.
On the pitch, the Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao phenomena transformed a team that had just been eliminated in the round of 16 of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar against Morocco, thanks to their dynamism, persistence and a touch of magic.
Each on their side of the pitch “transmitted to us that youth and innocence that are often so important”, praised midfielder Rodri, while Pedri spoke of “two young people who have fun on the pitch”.
Just a few days before blowing out 17 candles, Yamal found in Nico Williams, five years older, a great teammate, but also a friend and a mentor within the Spanish national team.
The two players are inseparable, training together in the training camp, joking all the time, spending their free time playing video games and celebrating their goals alongside each other, with choreographies inspired by the social network. TikTok.
A complicity that caused a stir after the victory over Georgia (4-1) in the round of 16, a game in which both were decisive.
Yamal, who provided an assist, and Williams, who scored the third goal, played a game of ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ to decide who would drink from a bottle first, a challenge won by Williams.
“He wouldn’t give me the bottle of water and we always draw straws. This week he’s going to have to put up with me because he didn’t score, but hopefully next game he’ll be able to shut me up,” Williams said later in the mixed zone.
🪩 Dance, my children, DANCE WHAT YOU WANT.
🇪🇸 🆚 🇬🇪 | 4-1 | 87’#VamosEspaña | #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/gdAxtrEMcv
— Spanish Men’s Football Team (@SEFutbol) June 30, 2024
Street soccer
If he succeeds, Yamal will break a new record for precocity, becoming the youngest player to score a goal in a European Championship.
In a country currently governed by a left-wing coalition, but which is not immune to the rise of the far right in Europe, the weight in the choice of Williams and Yamal, children of immigrants, is a great symbol.
Nico Williams’ parents fled Ghana, crossing the Sahara desert on foot, arriving first in Bilbao and then in Pamplona, ​​where Nico was born, while Yamal, born in Catalonia, is the son of a Moroccan father and an Equatorial Guinean mother.
A circumstance that did not escape numerous racist comments on social media and criticism for details such as Yamal’s boots, which he decided to decorate with the flags of his parents’ countries of origin.
But beyond their personal history, both are “very similar” on the field, according to Williams, with one thing in common, a style that resembles street football.
“We like to watch videos. When I was little I watched a lot of compilations of Ronaldo, Neymar, Robinho… In the end, a lot of street talent was lost. I spent all day in the square in my neighborhood playing football and trying to dribble,” Williams summarized in an interview with the newspaper Marca during the Euro Cup.
A winning formula for now for ‘La Roja’ whose limit is still unknown.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
