Albert Puig reveals the amazing story of how Lamine Yamal ended up joining Barcelona | OneFootball

There are many tales at FC Barcelona which deserve to be shared over the years to come. Lionel Messi’s story at the club was undoubtedly such a tale, even though it had a bitter ending. Fortunately, however, he was neither the first nor will he be the last Barcelona fairytale to emerge and go down in history.

Even right now, there are many players who continue to keep their stories alive with the club. Gavi, for instance, is one such player and he has already renewed his contract with the club of his life so that he can continue to defend the Barcelona badge for the years to come.

Another such tale is that of Lamine Yamal, however, and the 17-year-old winger is also a player whose current contract the club wishes to renew. However, even the opportunity to do that may never have come about had it not been for one fateful early encounter when the player was barely 7 years old.

In a recent interview, as highlighted by SPORT, former coordinator of the Barcelona youth academy, Albert Puig, revealed the origins of how Lamine Yamal was brought to the Catalan club:

The former coordinator of FC Barcelona’s youth academy, Albert Puig, revealed in an interview on Jijantes through La Torreta president Rafa Rodríguez, Juan Gascon, and scout Isidre Gil:

“Isidre Gil, a true legend, went to La Torreta’s playground and asked if there were any good players. Gascón responded, ‘Look, there’s a young kid, he’s really good.’ The next day, they played a match and won 6-0. Isidre saw him and said, ‘This kid needs to play for Barça.”

Later on, even before his first trial at the club, Puig revealed how Gascon constantly reminded the young child to not forget anything important. Rather hilariously, Yamal forgetting to bring his boots was exactly what led to him joining Barcelona in a fateful way:

“Gascón told him a thousand times not to forget anything, but of course, he was just a 6-year-old boy. He forgot his boots, and we had to lend him some. During the training, he played the last 30 minutes against older boys, and his talent immediately stood out. Even though he was one or two years younger than the others, he stood out incredibly. And of course, since I was there, you can imagine who made the decision.”

After impressing at the trial and convincing the Catalan giants to sign him, the final decision was in the hands of the player and his family. Ultimately, the way Barcelona treated the player ended up being the factor that persuaded him to join the club:

“They were told, ‘You have an offer from Espanyol and one from Barça, what do you want to do?’ The parents took their time to think it over. In the end, the scout suggested asking the child directly. And Lamine said he wanted to go to Barça, mainly because of how well they treated him.”

Going into further detail during the interview, Puig also highlighted exactly how Barcelona treated the player, and even something as insignificant as helping him with his training clothes ended up being a game-changer:

“At Barça, they gave him all his training clothes. These might seem like insignificant things, but the little details matter. They told us, ‘No one has treated us like you do.’ It’s not that Espanyol doesn’t treat people well, but we did it better.”

Now, with Yamal valued at €180 millionfellow competitors on the world stage, his story at Barcelona is quite the interesting tale.