The most intimate Lamine Yamal: The weight of fame, his beginnings in the neighborhood, racism...

Lamine Yamal showed a new image to the public in his interview with Pablo Motos on 'El Hormiguero'. Football fans around the world knew him for his great quality on the pitch, but after his appearance on the famous programme on 'Antena 3', they have been able to see his more personal side. At just 17 years old, the player has established himself as the great star of the present and future of FC Barcelona, ​​and when asked how he handles the pressure of fame without letting it go to his 'head', the footballer said that his mother is his 'grounding cable'.

"Going to my mother's house and having her tell me: 'Put on your flip-flops, close the door, make the bed...' She drives me very straight, it's the way to keep my feet on the ground. My mother commands my agent"

Disruptive on the pitch, the Catalan winger proved to be more 'meticulous' at home, with smells being one of his main obsessions. "I like the whole house to smell like vanilla and then there's a scarf at my mother's house that I like to smell. I come home and put on the scarf to watch LQSA," he revealed.

And among his manias, his tastes also stand out, with the player confessing that he would like to have an exotic pet. "I want to buy an octopus, I've already thought about the fish tank but my mother says it's impossible. At 13 she told me that at 18 and now she tells me that at 21. It's an exotic animal, if I go to a friend's house he doesn't have an octopus, if he comes to mine he does," he said, also assuring that, although it seems customary for young footballers to mark their bodies with ink, he prefers to stay away from it. "I won't get tattoos, no," he stressed.

Lamine revealed that he is enrolled in a cooking course to improve his skills in the kitchen, since "the best dish I have made, the best, best is chicken nuggets with chips. But frozen nuggets." He also spoke about his double, who has gone viral in recent days after appearing on programs such as 'El Chiringuito de Jugones' despite Yamal stating that "for me he doesn't look alike."

Lamine's response to racists

Lamine also responded forcefully when Pablo Motos asked him what he would say to the far-right racists who made xenophobic comments against him and Nico Williams during the Euro Cup.

"It's not worth saying anything. The best thing was not to answer. We know our education, our values ​​and nothing to say"

The importance of the neighborhood in Lamine Yamal's life

The young Barça player stressed that he was trained on the street, and that one of his training sessions was with dogs, and that he played goalkeeper in the park. "It gives you that mischief, that energy, playing without rules... My older cousin put me as a goalkeeper and I got everything, I'm not good at it. I turned around so he wouldn't hit me and he did. My father had two dogs, he came to school to get me and he brought a ball, we went home dribbling past the dogs," he said.

The attacker also spoke about his childhood in Rocafonda and the importance that the neighbourhood has had in his life, making it clear that the influence of the neighbourhood on his present has been transcendental in bringing him to the place where he is now.

"My cousins ​​are there, my grandmother, my mother, my father has lived there for many years... For me, it's everything"

In fact, his grandmother keeps him in line and constantly advises him, as Lamine revealed in the interview. "She always tells me two things: don't wear black clothes, she doesn't like it, to smile a lot and take care of my parents," he commented.