The referee blew the final whistle and the 5,000 people in Mataro’s Parc Central went wild. Everyone hugged each other and a child wearing Lamine Yamal’s shirt started to cry, clinging to the fence separating the spectators from the sound technicians.
Then, over the public address system, the voice of Javi Gomez, a local volunteer at the event, could be heard: “I’m taking the microphone just to say that a 17-year-old boy from our city has just won the Euro!”
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A standing ovation followed.
We are in Mataro, Yamal’s home town, a few metres away from the Mataro Park shopping centre, where a 14-year-old Yamal watched the last Euro final, in 2021.
He was still unknown to the general public back then and it could not have been imagined that he would be a key player in the next edition of the tournament, just three years later, let alone play a starring role and get four assists.
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The postcode of the Rocafonda neighbourhood (08304) is known worldwide thanks to its prodigal son, who uses the last three digits, 304, in every celebration.
The city council decided to put up a giant screen for residents to watch Spain in the final of the European Championship against England in one of the city’s most central parks, not far from the Yamals’ neighbourhood. For days, the city had been full of posters announcing they were going to provide an open-air place to watch the match.
The image displayed on that poster was, unsurprisingly, of Yamal. The square was filling up as kick-off approached. Yamal T-shirts were everywhere and there was a queue for a photocall with a picture of the 17-year-old.
One of the T-shirts catches the eye. It had Yamal’s name on the back, of course, but it wasn’t a Spain shirt, it was Barcelona’s.
“Lamine gave it to me,” Moussa Hamsa Dahbi said proudly. “I am a friend of the family and this is indescribable.”
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As he finished the sentence, the first chant began among about 50 people, sung to the tune of the Gipsy Kings’ Djobi, Djoba, a classic in Spain.
“Lamine, Yamal, every day I love you more. Lamine, Lamine, Lamine Yamal, every day I love you more” (‘every day I love you more’).
“You see,” Hamsa Dahbi said to me with a smile.
In the crowd, there are Spain T-shirts of all kinds. Those of players from days gone by, such as David Villa, with cracked lettering from the passage of time, contrasting with the pristine new white of those wearing Yamal’s number. It represented the generational change from one triumphant Spain to another. The heroes of 2008, 2010, 2012 and now those of 2024.
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Some are wearing the kits of Morocco (the country from which Yamal’s father hails), still saying they would have liked Yamal to defend their country’s colours, but they want Spain to win the final anyway and celebrate goals as if they were their own.
The match progresses and nerves take over. Spain’s first goal came suddenly, with the crowd watching on the giant screen in Mataro still returning from the bar with a sandwich and a beer in hand.
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The euphoria was reaching a peak. Nico Williams had scored after a great intervention by Yamal and while the TV broadcast kept praising the Barca player, the assistants hugged each other and kept repeating his name. Chanting again.
After the disappointment of England’s goal, the party started with Mikel Oyarzabal’s winner and Dani Olmo’s header off the line. In Mataro, the feeling was already there: Spain were going to be champions.
As glasses of beer flew through the sky, everyone hugged each other and an incredibly large Spanish flag flew in the sky.
Territories 304, Lamine Yamal territories. This is how their hometown celebrated Yamal’s first Euro.@TheAthleticFC pic.twitter.com/XRks84G2Mm
— Laia Cervelló Herrero (@Laia_Cervello) July 14, 2024
“This is historic,” said a boy Yamal’s age to his girlfriend, as he held her face.
A young boy was crying inconsolably alone on the floor of the square. He wiped his tears with his Spain T-shirt until his mother came to him and shook his hair in a loving gesture.
A large group of friends were hugging and jumping. Some with their fists in the air.
A red flare, in honour of the colour of the shirt, was lit in the background, accompanied by the noise of firecrackers being thrown all around the city, the roar of which echoed depending on the distance at which they had been thrown.
“Viva Rocafonda,” shouted some of those present, while on the screen Yamal was interviewed wearing the flag of Mataro around his waist.
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“It’s the best birthday present, I just want to go and celebrate with my family,” said Yamal, who turned 17 on Saturday, as he was cheered thousands of kilometres away by his neighbours.
A group of people at the back of the square started to make the 304 symbol.
Two friends in their thirties hugged each other, both wearing Yamal’s shirt — one in the Barcelona jersey, the other in a Spain top. One of them is Hamsa Dahbi, the friend of Yamal’s family I had passed earlier.
“He is 17 years and one day old. We knew he was very good, but we didn’t expect him to go so fast,” he says, overwhelmed with emotion. “He’s very special.”
He explains he has tried to call Yamal’s father but at that moment it is impossible to get them on the phone, while the big screen shows Yamal’s father on the Berlin pitch hugging his son and taking pictures with some of the players.
Hamsa Dahbi says he is looking forward to seeing him in person and hugging him — that for him, Yamal is like his son.
“It is a source of pride for Mataro and the boys that Yamal is from this city.”
The square is emptying as people head home or to the beach to celebrate.
The road fills up with cars flying the Spanish flag as they whistle to celebrate their country’s fourth European Championship victory.
The night will be long.
(Top photo: Ajuntament de Mataro)
