Clemente’s surprising opinion of Lamine

Lamine Yamal attracts the majority of opinion after his emergence into the elite of professional football, where he debuted when he was 15 years old. At the age of 16, the FC Barcelona winger is already a full international, who skipped all the intermediate age teams, and even scored two goals in the ‘red’ of Luis de la Fuente, their second this week against the Cyprus team. His talent has earned him widespread recognition in football, even worldwide, as evidenced by his election this Friday of ‘The Youngest’ Golden Boy award given by Tuttosport. But, as usual, not all opinions on any issue can be united. For example, what the former Spanish coach Javier Clemente expressed in El Larguero de la SER when he was openly examining the calling of a 16-year-old player like Lamine Yamal to the senior team.

“Unless they have a freaking medical certificate, I won’t hire 16-year-old players to play international matches,” he said without half-measures. Clemente, who is always clear in his opinions, argued why this kind of vision causes a call that seems premature: “It’s not that they don’t have football, that they have a lot of that, but what they don’t have is the physique. “

Clemente spoke during the week in which Xavi Hernández, coach of Barça, pointed out the media for overloading the players with pressure. The former coach was a coach in his day who faced the press and, a quarter of a century later, defended his position on the matter.

“You who write or speak about football do not have the courage to criticize the players, and then you criticize the coaches (…). The truth is the sports media, the news they give comes from relationship with the players,” he said. . “Have you ever thought that sometimes opposites are good?” he asked himself mockingly. “What I want to say is, when the team doesn’t play well, it’s the coach’s fault, but normally the player doesn’t have success or performance,” he said.