Lamine Yamal: Rising Star of Euro 2024

The players at Euro 2024 will bring not only their personal gear, electronic gadgets, lucky items, and much more. But this tournament also has a particularly special player. He's not just bringing those things; he's also brought his homework with him to Germany this summer.

"I brought my homework here because I'm in my final year of high school. I also have online classes, and they're going well. I hope my teachers aren't mad at me," said Lamine Yamal, the Spanish forward. He's become the youngest player to appear in a match in the history of the European Championship.

Yamal, at 16 years and 338 days old, earned the trust of coach Luis de la Fuente to start for Spain in their Euro 2024 opener against Croatia last night. With this, the Barcelona winger broke the previous record set by Kacper Kozłowski of Brighton, who played for Poland at Euro 2020 when he was just 17 years and 246 days old. Yamal is nearly a year younger than Kozłowski, but his inclusion in Spain's starting lineup against Croatia didn't surprise most fans.

This 16-year-old winger has rapidly developed in some way. He waited to become Barcelona's youngest debutant in La Liga just a week before becoming their youngest player for their second team, Barcelona B. Only a year after leaving the renowned La Masia academy, Yamal became the youngest goalscorer in La Liga history, including the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup. Not bad for a youngster who's just 16 years old.

Yamal's national team record is also impressive: the youngest player to represent Spain, the youngest to score for Spain, and the youngest to assist for Spain. Of course, he also holds the record for the youngest player to appear in Euro history, as mentioned above. At Euro 2024, Yamal is proving to be not just Spain's youngest player in the tournament but also potentially one of their key players in their campaign on German soil this summer.

His performance in last night's match against an experienced Croatia team demonstrated this. There was a moment of hesitation right from the start when he seemed to have a good receiving position just behind Croatia's defense, but the talent born in 2007 had a left-footed shot that didn't quite go as planned. Yet from that moment, he felt more confident and played as Spain's most important attacking player.

This winger often dribbled directly into Croatia's defense and then held the ball in a dangerous area, leading directly to Fabian's goal to make it 2-0. Immediately after, Yamal's excellent cross was converted into a simple finish by Dani Carvajal to secure Spain's 3-0 lead and a strong advantage in Group B. This includes his international debut, scoring against Gruam last September. Yamal now has seven contributions to Spain's goals, with two goals and five assists, all in eight appearances for the national team. He's now the youngest player to provide an assist at EURO.

If he scores in the second half, it would clearly be a much greater debut for Barcelona's player, making him the youngest goalscorer in EURO history, something he might have achieved in his very first match in this competition.

Yamal will continue to break that record if he scores in the coming weeks. In addition, the player born in 2007 gave a confident assessment of last night's game in a post-match interview: "I'm very happy to win and have a debut like this, but now we're thinking about the next game. I'm here to help the team in both defense and attack wherever needed. We worked very effectively today. It's the result of the months of hard work we put in.