{"id":39853,"date":"2026-07-17T15:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39853"},"modified":"2026-07-17T15:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:04:19","slug":"in-lamine-yamals-old-neighbourhood-world-cup-final-against-messi-brings-pride","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/in-lamine-yamals-old-neighbourhood-world-cup-final-against-messi-brings-pride\/","title":{"rendered":"In Lamine Yamal&#8217;s old neighbourhood, World Cup final against Messi brings pride"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The pitch where Spain forward Lamine Yamal honed his skills in a working-class, multi-ethnic neighbourhood outside Barcelona \u200bwas buzzing with life on Thursday as locals looked ahead \u200cwith pride to the World Cup final against Lionel Messi&#8217;s Argentina.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Now that the moment has come when the two of them are going to play against \u200beach other, it&#8217;s incredible,&#8221; said Keba, an 18-year-old Senegalese resident, \u200breferring to Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal&#8217;s well-known admiration for Messi.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Messi, \u206039, enjoyed the peak years of his career at Barcelona having \u200bcome through the club&#8217;s youth academy and a viral photograph showing \u200bthe Argentine with a baby Lamine Yamal, now 19, has captured imaginations ahead of Sunday&#8217;s final in New Jersey.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>As children from migrant families played on a pitch \u200bbehind a mural featuring Lamine Yamal&#8217;s face in the Rocafonda neighbourhood, \u200bin the coastal city of Mataro, his grandmother, Fatima Nasraoui, and his 15-year-old cousin \u200cRayan \u2060watched from a nearby bench.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I want Spain to win,&#8221; she said, adding that she would shout loudly if he scores.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;To me, Lamine means many good things, but above all he&#8217;s like a brother because we \u200bgrew up together,&#8221; \u200bhis cousin \u2060said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Lamine Yamal, who was born in Spain to a Moroccan father and mother from Equatorial Guinea, has never \u200bforgotten his roots.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Throughout his career, he has \u200bhonoured Rocafonda \u2060with his trademark &#8220;304&#8221; hand gesture after scoring goals &#8211; a reference to the neighbourhood&#8217;s postal code.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>During the World Cup, he has worn a headband with &#8220;Rocafonda&#8221; \u2060on \u200bit, donned the flags of his parents&#8217; \u200bcountries of origin on his boots, and said football was an example of racial and social \u200bintegration.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":39855,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-39853","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"World Cup final","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39856,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39853\/revisions\/39856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}