His "aura" drops, as he says, or charisma, as it used to be called. It falls out of his pockets. Lamine Yamal (Esplugas de Llobregat, 18 years old, turning 19 on Monday) greets with a smile. He is happy. He wears white sneakers, pulled-up socks, of course, and sagging pants, of course. He enters, shortly after 10 in the morning, into one of the private rooms of the Dignity Health Sports Park, the exact name of the field where the Los Angeles Galaxy play. He sits on a black leather sofa waiting for the questions and glancing at the camera from afar, the least favorite part of his encounter with EL MUNDO. He says he's had enough, that he feels perfect to play tonight in the quarterfinals of his first World Cup, a tournament he's been eagerly awaiting.
Before that, he talks about his parents, his neighborhood, what calms him (everything) and what makes him nervous (almost nothing), about his brother, the topic that truly relaxes him. He is an 18-year-old kid whom the world looks at, waiting for who knows what. And he, in response, offers what he is: an 18-year-old kid. A joker who says, half jokingly half seriously, that in interviews he says whatever he wants so that no one knows who he really is. Just Lamine.
QUESTION. Let's see, I have a son your age and he says words that I don't understand. Can you help me?
ANSWER. Sure, let's do it.
Q. He constantly says to me: "One hundred percent, one hundred percent."
A. That's like yes, that there are no doubts about what you're talking about, like he's right in what he's saying.
Q. I really don't know what this means: cringe.
A. Cringe is like, I don't know, watching your father dance, for example.
A. Yes, they are like things... you know? Things that can embarrass you.
Q. So, if I dance in front of him, I'm bothering him and it's cringe for him. Is that how it is?
A. Maybe not in front of him, but in front of his friends, yes.
A. Sorry, it's called crush. It's like your childhood crush or your current crush. But a crush that is not... Not your neighbor, for example, you know?
Q. Why not my neighbor?
A. I don't know, well maybe your neighbor is fine. It's like your impossible love. That's it! Your impossible love. Although well, it doesn't have to be impossible, because maybe you achieve it.
A. Aura is a person who exudes, I don't know... when they arrive somewhere, it's like... you know? When you see someone in a movie and you say "wow". For example, Brad Pitt or someone like that. In football, Cristiano also, he would be a good example of aura.
Q. Between you and me, for example, who has more aura?
A. [Opens his arms as if to say "what kind of question is that?" and laughs]. Well, I think me.
"I don't care what people think of me. If not, I would tell the truth in all interviews"
Q. I suspected it. Thanks for the help. How are you, Lamine?
A. Very well, I feel very good. I arrived here after two months off and I had to gradually get back into rhythm, but I feel good for this decisive phase of the tournament.
Q. Do interviews tire you a bit?
A. Because they are always the same questions.
Q. Do you think people know the real Lamine Yamal?
A. No. That's why I always give the same answers, so you never know. Maybe that's why people have an image of me that is not real.
Q. You don't want people to know how you are?
A. No, I don't want people to know how I am. How I really am is something I keep to myself. I believe that you have an image of me that is not real.
Q. Do you care what people think of you?
A. I don't care. If not, I would tell the truth in all interviews.
Lamine Yamal, during the interview.PABLO GARCÍA
Q. Are you afraid people might see you as arrogant, as conceited?
A. No. Here everyone, in the end, can have their own opinion about people, but it's normal. Sometimes I think it's a media thing, because people don't care how I am. You, for example, when you get home, you're not thinking about me or how I am. People really don't care.
Q. So, it doesn't matter to him at all.
A. No. What matters to me is living with my mother, living with my brother and my family, the rest doesn't matter much to me.
Q. What would you like people to say about you in 20 years? When you've left football behind.
A. Well, I would like them to say that in football I have been a role model, that I have inspired future footballers at some point in their careers, that they have enjoyed watching videos of me, watching one of my games, that they were inspired by me to play. And outside of football, that I have been a person who has always told the truth, who has always been genuine, who has been straightforward, and that I have been a good person. Above all, that I have been a good person.
Q. What does it mean to be from the neighborhood?
A. Being from the neighborhood means having grown up in reality, the reality that most people live, and that is not the reality I live in now. Being from the neighborhood has nothing to do with delinquency or what many who have never set foot in a neighborhood think.
Q. Do you think there is a misconception of what it means to be from the neighborhood?
A. Yes, a completely wrong one. I think people who are not from the neighborhood want to be from the neighborhood because they think being from the neighborhood is something else. I'm not exactly sure what they think it is, but they definitely don't know. Being from the neighborhood means going out with your friends to the park, playing in the park, then going back home, trying to watch soccer in any bar, going out for a drink with your mother, going to a restaurant once a month. That's what being from the neighborhood means, not causing trouble.