Lamine Yamal balanced school and high performance at Barcelona and the Spanish national team: understand the young man’s discipline
Lamine Yamal, considered Spain’s main player at the age of 18, is present at the World Cup as a precocious talent who redefines football standards. The athlete scored a goal in his debut as a starter, in the victory against Saudi Arabia, and continues to break age records while playing a central role in the team.
However, just over two years ago, as he began his journey to become a star for the Spanish national team, the 16-year-old faced a common challenge for his age: finding time for studies and school exams between training, camps and matches.
To fulfill his academic obligations, Yamal used free breaks during classes. He attended online classes, did research on tablets, solved assignments and took tests, always focusing on getting good grades. A notable moment in this precocious trajectory occurred during the 2024 Euro Cup, when, at the age of 16, he was already capturing global attention wearing the Spain shirt.
During this period of concentration with the team, which would eventually win the title, the Barcelona striker needed to balance intense training and games with completing ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education), Spanish primary and secondary education.
In an interview with Spain’s official website at the time, Yamal commented on the routine: “I have classes and every day they send me different homework assignments, they give me more things to do at home. I do them every day. If the teacher sees that we are in the quarterfinals or the round of 16, he doesn’t send me a lot of homework. But on the days off, when he knows I’m not doing anything, he tells me to do more things.”
The reward for so much effort arrived days before the Euro Cup final, played against England. After training, Yamal received the news of his approval, called his mother to share the good news and thus completed his mandatory studies in the middle of one of the biggest football tournaments in the world.
For Luis Castro Luna, a journalist at Radio Nacional de España who follows the Spanish team at the 2026 World Cup, this story of Lamine Yamal’s academic overcoming goes beyond mere curiosity. The journalist highlights that the episode is fundamental to understanding the player’s accelerated maturation and his remarkable ability to juggle different responsibilities at such a young age.
Luna highlighted that “in the middle of the 2024 Euro Cup, he needed to study to complete the ESO. He was already a star, but he found time, in full concentration, to dedicate himself to the tests and pass. This says a lot about his capacity for effort and responsibility. Anyone else, knowing that he was already in the elite, would probably have left his studies on the back burner.”
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Despite the seriousness of his commitments, Luis Castro Luna describes Yamal as a happy and playful young man, who shows great confidence in himself. He remains an 18-year-old boy who finds pleasure in living life and, especially, in playing football.
Spain and Uruguay will face each other this Friday, at 9 pm (Brasília time), in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico. The live broadcast will be carried out by Globo, ge tv and sportv, with complete real-time coverage on ge.globo and exclusive cuts.
In Luis Castro Luna’s view, Yamal’s maturation process became evident from the moment the young man started playing for the main team. At just 16 years old, he not only debuted, but also began breaking records consecutively, demonstrating that he was an outstanding player.
The journalist stated that “it was since he started playing for the Spanish national team at just 16 years old and he began to break all precocious records: debut, goals, matches… There it became clear that he was not just another talent”.
In a comparative analysis, Luna points out that, in terms of numbers, Yamal already surpasses Messi at the same age, performing similar feats, but at an even earlier age. The big challenge now is to maintain this level of performance and continue to evolve over the years, an expectation that reinforces the player’s historical potential.
If at the 2024 Euro Cup, where Spain won, Yamal was still seen as a promise that needed protection, today he occupies a different level. In the match against Uruguay, this Friday, Yamal is one of Spain’s main hopes of securing first place in the group.
Luna assesses that the young man “is already one of the leaders in football. I would say he is the leader. The aura he transmits and the way his teammates look for him during games confirm this. If Spain goes far thanks to him, Yamal will establish himself on the Olympus of the best in the world and start knocking on the door of history”.
After scoring his first World Cup goal against Saudi Arabia, Yamal expressed his satisfaction: “I’ve always dreamed of being at a World Cup and scoring in my first game as a starter is a dream come true. I saw the last World Cup at school, and now being here is huge.”
The Spanish team and the Uruguayan team will meet next Friday, at 9 pm (Brasília time), in a clash valid for the last round of Group H of the 2026 World Cup, in Guadalajara, Mexico.
