Mataró, Spain: Every time Lamine Yamal scores, he holds up his fingers to sign the numbers 304 -- the postcode of Rocafonda, the modest Catalan district where he grew up, which is bursting with pride over the 16-year-old's success in Euro 2024. It's not yet midday but there is a real buzz inside the local bar, El Cordobes, which is still reeling with excitement after Yamal, who used to come in with his dad, clutching a football, shot home the sublime goal against France that helped propel Spain to Sunday's Euro 2024 final. For years, people here to the north of Barcelona knew he was different but nobody could have predicted the lad would go on to become the youngest player to score in a European Championship.
"We knew he was going to play with Barcelona's first team," bar owner Juan Carlos Serrano says with a proud smile. But we had no idea he would have the kind of impact he's having now." On the wall behind him is a framed Barcelona shirt signed by Yamal that his father gave Serrano as thanks for his support during the years when the pair used to go to the bar before taking the train into the city for him to train with the club's youth team -- until he signed with their famed La Masia youth academy.
That was the last day Yamal came into the bar, but not the last time he came back to this district of Mataro, a city of 130,000 people that lies 30 kilometres (18 miles) up the coast from Barcelona where he spent some of his childhood and where many locals proudly show off pho.