In Spain, where Yamal comes from and Messi made it big, both players have fans. ‘My heart is torn about this match’

When the scorching sun diminishes slightly around 6 p.m., a group of eleven teenage boys walk onto the concrete football field of Rocafonda. Against the backdrop of a large mural of Lamine Yamal, the Spanish star player who comes from this district of the coastal city of Mataró – thirty kilometers from Barcelona – they start dribbling a World Cup ball.

Most boys wear slippers and a shirt La Roja or FC Barcelona, ​​but one of them dared to put on a Messi shirt. “I like Yamal, he is a friend of my cousin and I have seen him here,” says Saif (13). “But I’m also a big Messi fan. I think they can both win.”

“Traitor“, shout his football buddies, which means traitor. They say they are sure that Spain will win the World Cup final, although they do not agree on the score. 2-0, 2-1, it is possible, they think. “But Yamal will definitely score,” says Riad (14). With their fingers the boys make the ‘304’ sign that Yamal also makes on the field: he raises three fingers, makes a circle with his other fingers and then raises the four fingers of his other hand – as a reference to the zip code of Rocafonda (08304).

Saif is not the only one in the neighborhood with sympathy for Messi. Mohammed Moussati is also an admirer of the Argentinian player, he says on the edge of the football field. Moussati only moved to Rocafonda from Morocco a year ago, but was always a fan of FC Barcelona, ​​where Messi played for 21 years and which is the main supplier of the Spanish team with eight players. Atlético Madrid will provide the most players in the final match, in addition to four Spanish ones and six Argentinian ones. Playing football for the first time in decades La Roja without Real Madrid players.

Yamal himself only knows Moussati from TV, but he regularly hears the stories from his friends who followed the footballer’s development closely until he left for the youth academy of the Catalan club at a young age. Yet he cannot convincingly say in his new hometown that he is in favor of Spain. “My heart is torn about this match.”

Shirt with number 19

None of that doubt is noticeable a kilometer away in Parc Central, where the match is shown on large screens. The large open space is colored red and yellow, the shirts with Yamal’s number 19 cannot be counted. When Yamal, who turned 19 this week, makes his first attempt at goal in the fourth minute, the spectators sound their horns en masse.

David Bote, mayor of Mataró, stares at the screen in Parc Central in a purple polo and looks around. He is looking forward to the match and is a bit tense: a meeting with so many people must go well, even afterwards.

He is very pleased with Lamine Yamal. “He conveys a positive message, about our city, but also about inclusion.” When former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy wrote in a column last week that the French team is good, but… not from French exists, Yamal – with a Moroccan-born father and a mother born in Equatorial Guinea – responded that football is a way of integration. He mentioned the French and Spanish teams as an example. “I can only thank him for that,” says Bote.

The mayor does not dare to say whether Spain will win. His hesitation appears not to be unfounded. The Spanish team has dominated possession from the start, under the watchful eye of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the king and his family in the stands in New Jersey. But it’s a long wait for things to get exciting, and even longer for a goal.

Arms in the air

After the break, in which the spectators in the park produced sandwiches wrapped in aluminum foil en masse and Shakira got her hips moving in the park, the pace of the Spanish attack on its second world title increases. So is the emotion in the park. The spectators raise their hands like one man when a Spanish player is taken to the ground. „Puta” echoes across the field when a yellow card is given, and even louder when the Argentinian Fernández commits an offense punishable with a red card.

In the 96th minute the goal finally seems to fall and the fireworks shoot into the air, but the joy turns out to be too early. Argentina’s ten hold out for a long time, until the first minute of the second quarter of extra time. The T-shirts fly through the air, the (red) flares and horns fight for the highest word. The noise won’t die down anymore. And you don’t have to. Yamal’s goal is still disallowed, but Spain – which has only conceded a goal to the Belgians this World Cup – keeps the target empty.

When leaving the park, a blue and white Messi shirt stands out among the frenzied revelers. Bruna Burrull (19) watched the match with three friends dressed in red, but was the only one who did not look happy. “I am Catalan, so I am not for Spain.” That sentiment used to be more widely shared than it is now, she says, but she feels it strongly. “My friends are not avid football watchers so they don’t mind me supporting the other team.” She has been following Messi for years, but now that he is most likely to retire, she does not rule out that Yamal’s name will be on her shirt at the next World Cup – although it will not be on a shirt from La Roja are.