Lamine Yamal’s new life: emancipated, far from Rocafonda and with a contract to negotiate

The neighborhood couldn’t be quieter. Wide avenues, large supermarkets and many, many new housing developments: Barcelona is growing here. In Sant Joan Despí, around the Joan Gamper Sports City, few things happen and that is why it is the ideal place for the growth of Lamine Yamal. Who in 2023 was the new jewel of Spanish football, in 2024 he has already become the new jewel of world football and who knows where he will arrive in 2025.

Although he is still a minor – he turns 18 on July 13, 2025 – the forward became the benchmark of the new Barça this year. Hansi Flick and of Spain, champion of Europe, while everything changed around them and at the same time nothing did. His daily life remains what it was: the same old football, the same old people, but in other places. The clearest example is his home: he has already been emancipated. Raised in the Rocafonda neighborhood in Mataró – where his father lived Mounir– and Granollers – where his mother lived Sheila and he went to Pereanton school, Yamal was an exception at La Masía since he entered at the age of 12. Due to the complexity of his environment, Barcelona decided to give him a scholarship at the now called Oriol Tort Training Center although he did not need it – Mataró is half an hour by car from Barcelona – and he lived there until last summer. Five years in the same residence that helped him make great friendships, like the one he maintains with Pau Cubarsiand to create a feeling of belonging. A few days ago, in fact, the Beats brand gave him more than 100 headphones and he sent them to the kids at La Masía. But that stage is over for him.

After the European Championship of his consecration, Yamal moved to a not very large apartment in Sant Joan Despí, where he lives alone, although his friend accompanies him many days. Souhaib and his cousin Moha, who acts as his driver. From there the current Golden Boy goes to the Ciudad Deportiva to have breakfast, train and lunch – many days he also takes dinner – and from there he moves to visit family and friends. Although he hardly visits the places of his childhood anymore, especially Rocafonda. Since the stabbing last August, Yamal and his family have stayed away from the neighborhood, especially since his grandmother Fátima left him permanently in search of safety. Now the footballer’s environment moves between the apartment he has acquired for his father and grandmother in the center of Barcelona and the house he has bought for his mother and his little brother. Keyne in Premià de Dalt, near Mataró.

The kitchen and renovation

Little else is known about his life as a planetary star, still far from Barcelona’s nightlife, and with concerns to discover. Yamal has only revealed a certain taste for cooking until he confessed in ‘El nou clam’, the club’s 125th anniversary documentary hosted by David Carabenwho is doing a course. In the entity, yes, they have congratulated him for his recent improvement in English – he receives private classes – which has allowed him to understand Flick on most occasions without the need to resort to an assistant/translator.

With Barcelona he already has 73 games, 13 goals and 21 assists, with Spain he already has 17 games, three goals and eight assists, but Yamal is still a teenager. In fact, he still maintains his promising young contract that ends in 2026 – he earns less than two million euros per season – waiting to sign the agreement that should make him a multimillionaire. «Of course he is going to renew with Barça; “Lamine is from Barça,” said his representative. Jorge Mendesat the Golden Boy gala, although the figures have yet to be finalized. There is a date marked: the player’s 18th birthday. Everything else remains to be seen. At the beginning of the year there was a draft on the table, but in the Euro Cup it lost its meaning and this fall, with Yamal established as the leader of the Barça attack, it was definitively forgotten. The negotiation has yet to begin and it will not be easy.

The entity’s financial problems will not allow Yamal to suddenly become the highest-paid member of the squad and his agent’s demands will not be far from that. The transfer market can resolve the mess, but until his arrival the rumors that place the forward away from Barcelona will grow. His departure is unlikely, especially at this point in his career, just after 2024 in which he has emancipated himself with some friends, has organized his family’s life, has discovered a hobby and has become the new jewel of the world football.