Lamine Yamal Says the Kitchen and Bedroom Were in the Same Room Where He Grew Up, and Seeing His Brother Get the Childhood He Never Had Is What Makes Him Happiest
“I came from an apartment where the kitchen and bedroom were in the same place. So I see my mother happy, I see that my brother can have the kind of childhood I would have wanted, and that’s what makes me happiest.” — Lamine Yamal
Spain is in Sunday’s World Cup final at MetLife Stadium after beating France 2-0 in Dallas on Tuesday, and the breakout fan of its run has been three-year-old Keyne Yamal. After Spain beat Belgium in the quarter-final, the big screen at the stadium in Inglewood caught him pulling faces in celebration, and cameras then found his older brother Lamine looking up, watching him stick his tongue out, and laughing.
Yamal knew it was coming. “I was at physio and he called me, using my mum’s phone, and told me that he was going to stick his tongue out tomorrow,” he said after the game. “So that’s why when I saw him on the screen, it really made me laugh.”
The two share a mother but have different fathers, and Yamal, who just turned 19, talks about Keyne like a parent. “My little brother means everything to me. I’m in love with him; it feels like he’s my son,” he told reporters earlier in July.
That devotion traces back to where he started. “My mom had me when she was 16, now that’s real pressure,” he told Cadena SER. “Then my dad had to go out and make a living, scavenging on the streets to bring food home. That’s pressure. All I have to do is play and keep the Spanish fans happy.”
Speaking on a podcast with José Ramón de la Morena, Yamal explained why watching Keyne grow up in a different world is what actually moves him: the one-room apartment he came from, and the childhood he wants his brother to have.
Yamal has scored just once in his first World Cup and had a goal against France ruled out for offside, but Spain has ridden its defense and a Mikel Oyarzabal penalty and a Pedro Porro strike to the final, holding Kylian Mbappé scoreless for the first time all tournament after his eight-goal Golden Boot run. Keyne has been at the big moments before, celebrating on the pitch when Spain won the 2024 European Championship and turning up to the Ballon d’Or ceremony that same year in a black suit. Spain will face either Argentina or England on Sunday, chasing its second World Cup title and its first since 2010.
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