Lamine Yamal sat down next to Hansi Flick at the Ciutat Esportiva on Tuesday afternoon, a day before Barcelona open their Champions League campaign against Feyenoord, and spent twenty minutes being asked about everything except football tactics. The Ballon d’Or. Ousmane Dembele leaving him off a podium. Real Madrid. Whether fame is heavy. Whether he would be frightened of the bench.
He answered all of it. The line that will travel furthest was the one about Madrid.
The Lamine Yamal press conference answer about Real Madrid
Asked about the rivalry and Barcelona’s recent dominance of it, the No.10 did not reach for diplomacy. “I don’t know, if they have gone years without winning that will be their problem,” he said, per Mundo Deportivo. “Ask them. They look happy enough to me.”
It is the same register he has used since he was 16, delivered now with four league wins from four behind him and a team scoring at a rate nobody at the Spotify Camp Nou can quite believe. El Clasico is not until 25 October. The pre-match talking has started early.
‘I’m not going to beg’ — the Ballon d’Or question
The ceremony is approaching and the nominee lists were published on Tuesday morning, which made the Ballon d’Or unavoidable. Lamine’s position was that it is not his job to lobby.
“I don’t think I need to run a campaign. Everyone can think what they want. I’m not here to campaign. I’m not going to beg for anything — that’s your job,” he told the room. On the award itself: “It doesn’t depend on me, it depends on you. We had a great year with Barca and with the national team. We’ll see.”
He was also invited to react to Dembele omitting him from a personal Ballon d’Or podium. The response was a shrug and a smile. “I don’t know, he’s friends with Kylian, isn’t he? I get on very well with Ousmane.”
Barcelona did collect nominations elsewhere on Tuesday. Goalkeeper Joan Garcia is one of ten men shortlisted for the 2026 Goalkeeper of the Year award after a debut season that brought 15 La Liga clean sheets and the Zamora Trophy, while Barca Femeni are up for Women’s Club of the Year and Pere Romeu for Women’s Coach of the Year.
Fame, the bench and growing up in public
The personal questions produced the more revealing answers. On handling the attention: “It’s easy to manage. In the dressing room there are people who have done more than me in football. I go home and I have to keep my feet on the ground.”
On the possibility of being left out: “It doesn’t scare me. If one day I am a substitute, it doesn’t scare me. There are great players here.”
On his physical development, he was funny about it: “I’m a kid and I’m growing, but less than Cubarsi or Bernal.” And on the flat body language spotted during Sunday’s win at Mestalla: “It depends on the day. The other day it was the heat. We were in 40 degrees and I was tired.”
He also pushed back on the idea that the World Cup summer had left a mark. “I’m very happy, I have never been happier in my life than I am now. There was a lot of talk after the World Cup, but I had a great holiday.”
Leadership at 19
Asked about the captaincy and what kind of leader he wants to become, Lamine pointed at the players ahead of him rather than at himself. “There are good examples in the team. Rapha is spectacular. Pedri, Eric, Frenkie. What I have learned from them is that the team comes first.”
He called being chosen by his teammates “a source of pride” that “makes me responsible”, adding: “I’m 19, but I want to live up to it.” Flick’s official captaincy order this season runs Raphinha, then Pedri, then Eric Garcia.
The one trophy missing
Everything funnelled back to Wednesday. Lamine has won league titles, a Copa del Rey, a European Championship and a World Cup. The Champions League is the gap.
“There is no bigger motivation than the fact I still have the Champions League to win — it’s the most special tournament,” he said. “This year it could happen with the players who have arrived: Gordon, Rodri, Adeyemi, Joao.”
Flick, speaking first, set the same target in flatter language. “All the big clubs dream of winning it. It’s the biggest competition and we have the quality to win it, but we have to prove it. And we want to do just that,” the German said, per Barca Universal. He returned repeatedly to togetherness: “There are plenty of experienced players. What matters is the team. We all have to give our all, every single day.”
Team news for Feyenoord
Flick took the final session at the Camp Tito Vilanova half an hour behind schedule after a long video meeting. Frenkie de Jong (knee) and Roony Bardghji (ACL) were the only players absent from the grass, both long-term and Bardghji no longer registered for the competition. Eric Garcia trained in a protective mask after his facial injury at Valencia but is suspended for Wednesday, carrying over a red card from last season’s European exit against Atletico Madrid.
Jesse Bisiwu did train, his ankle scare from the Copa Catalunya final having passed, but Flick ruled the Belgian winger out of the squad. “He is connected with us. Tomorrow he will not be there. He has plenty of chances to play with us,” the coach said, per Mundo Deportivo. The squad meets at the Hotel Torre Melina at midday on Wednesday, when the travelling list is confirmed.
Kick-off at the Spotify Camp Nou is 18:45 CEST. Our predicted lineup and full team news for Barcelona vs Feyenoord has the likely XI, and Lamine has already been collecting individual awards before a ball has been kicked in Europe.
Squad and fixture information is published by FC Barcelona and UEFA. Press-conference quotes are translated from Mundo Deportivo, with Flick’s remarks via Barca Universal.
