Дэлхийн аваргын шөвгийн 16-ын хүрээнд Испанийн залуу од Ламине Ямаль болон Португалийн домог Криштиану Роналду нар талбайд учраа таарч байна.
Өсвөрийн од Ламине Ямаль өөрийн нэр дээрх шүүмжлэлийг “Ego Yamal” хэмээн нэрлэсэн толгойн боолтоор дамжуулан хүлээн зөвшөөрч, өөрийн гэсэн өвөрмөц хэв маягийг хадгалсаар байна. Тэрбээр шүүмжлэл болон хөгжөөн дэмжигчдийн дарамтыг хөлбөмбөгийн нэг хэсэг хэмээн үзэж, өөрийг нь эсэргүүцэгчдийн хандлагад тайван ханддаг. Хэдийгээр бэртлийн улмаас тэмцээний эхний хэсэгт бага тоглосон ч Саудын Арабын эсрэг анхны гоолоо оруулж, одоо бүрэн хүчин чадлаараа тоглоход бэлэн байгаагаа илэрхийлжээ.
Нөгөө талд 41 настай Криштиану Роналду карьерынхаа төгсгөл үед ирж, өмнөх шигээ бүх зүйлийг дангаараа шийдвэрлэх чадвар нь буурсан ч өөрийн гэсэн асар их бардам зангаараа талбайд гардаг. Хорватын эсрэг тоглолтод дасгалжуулагч Роберто Мартинес түүнийг сэлгээгээр суулгасан нь түүнийг үл хөндөгдөх тоглогч биш болсныг харуулсан юм. Гэсэн хэдий ч Роналду сэлгээнд суусны дараа багийнхаа ялалтыг хамтдаа тэмдэглэж, өмнөх үеийнхээс илүү хүлээцтэй зан гаргах болжээ.
Даллас хотноо болох энэхүү тоглолт нь шинэ үеийн од болон хөлбөмбөгийн түүхэн дэх хамгийн их нөлөө бүхий “эго”-той тоглогчийн мөргөлдөөн болох юм. Роналду залуу өрсөлдөгчөө талбайд харуулахыг хүсэж байгаа бол, Ямаль дэлхийн хамгийн том тайзан дээр өөрийн байр суурийг эзлэхээр зориг шулууджээ. Энэхүү тулаан нь хэн нь ялалт байгуулахаас үл хамааран хөлбөмбөгийн түүхэн дэх үе солигдох чухал агшин болон үлдэх төлөвтэй байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
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At first glance, it looked like nothing more than a fashion accessory — a black headband only just visible under Lamine Yamal’s tangle of black hair.
It was only when you looked closely at the pictures of Spain’s prodigiously talented attacker that it was possible to pick out the wording on the band: ‘Ego Yamal’.
When asked by The Athletic, sources close to the teenager — speaking anonymously as they did not have permission to talk — explained this was a personalised message based on the hate he receives on TikTok, where users who mock and criticise him call him Ego Yamal.
Yamal does have an ego — and he embraces it. His choice of headgear was just another example of how Yamal deals with being Yamal.
It is a good job the 18-year-old revels in being in the spotlight, as it is only going to get more intense. Today, he will take centre-stage for one of the most enticing ties of the World Cup so far, a last-16 meeting with Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo, whose ego has probably generated more analysis than that of any footballer on the planet.
They are two players at different ends of their careers, wrestling with working out their new role in the football firmament: Yamal going from tyro talent to main character, and Ronaldo from blazing superstar to supernova.
Neither transition is easy, and today, their worlds collide.
Cristiano Ronaldo has no intention of leaving the stage just yet (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Yamal is the playful kid who decided that, once he achieved superstar status, he would simply not change for the sake of publicity.
He has grown up in a social media world: he scrolls on TikTok and Instagram when he’s bored, and also when he needs to find some motivation in his game. He expresses himself through social media, sharing personal challenges or sending cheeky messages to opponents ahead of a big match. This is the football he learnt in the streets, the fun and the risk, what it’s all about and what he loves about the game.
“I am going to tell you a story,” Yamal told radio station Cadena COPE last week. “This season with Barca, we played a game at Getafe. I was already injured and did not feature. We won, and the Getafe crowd gave Pedri a standing ovation when he was subbed off in the game. After the match, our manager Hansi Flick spoke to me to tell me, ‘Look at this, you should receive the same treatment, but when you score, you celebrate in front of them’.
“I replied to Flick from my perspective and asked him, ‘Do you think that if I scored and celebrated with my team-mates, opposition fans would not boo me?’ My opinion: I don’t think so. I am not the same (as Pedri); we are different players. Pedri reminds me of Andres Iniesta. Everyone loves him; I love him, but I’m different. I’ll have half of the fans that will love me a lot; the other half will boo me, and I am fine with it!
“This is what I love about football. Cristiano Ronaldo has been booed. (Lionel) Messi has been booed. Neymar, Vinicius, (Kylian) Mbappe… I live with that and I would not like it to change, and be applauded everywhere. This is what makes football great.”
The anecdote sums up Yamal’s mentality and why it made him so marketable. Yamal-mania grips every city of the United States where he sets foot. Yamal’s face is leading the biggest adverts. His Spain shirt dominates the stands of every game in which he is involved. The roar whenever he touches the ball is on a different level.
Spain, as a country, has never had anything like that.
Yamal’s build-up to this tournament was not straightforward. He missed the end of Barcelona’s season due to a left hamstring injury he sustained in April and had not recovered in time to start Spain’s first group game, a 0-0 draw against Cape Verde, where he came on as a late substitute. His entry, instead, came in the 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia, where he took just 10 minutes to score his first World Cup goal.
Lamine Yamal celebrates his goal against Saudi Arabia (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
In comparison to some of the tournament’s other galacticos — Messi, Mbappe, Erling Haaland and the like — Yamal has had a quiet start, not registering any further goals and yet to deliver an assist, but he has produced some trademark mercurial dribbles and has rarely been less than engrossing to watch. There is more than enough time for him to make his mark.
“The World Cup starts now,” Yamal told reporters after the last-32 win over Austria. “Now I’m 100 per cent. I’m feeling like myself again, making the runs I need to, dribbling. I’m very happy.”
The golden era of Spanish football, back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, was built on a collective sense; a clockwork team who had the best tactical knowledge and found in their collective effort their biggest strength.
Xavi Hernandez, Iniesta, David Villa, Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso, Gerard Pique, Fernando Torres were all great players, but nobody was such a high-end individual talent and a standout personality in the industry like Yamal is right now.
There is also an element of seizing the occasion, too. Those close to Yamal told The Athletic the teenager sees the World Cup as the biggest competition in world football, even more important than fighting for the Champions League. The industry was primed to make him a poster boy, and he embraced that from the very start.
This is possibly the first time U.S. football fans have had the opportunity to see a teenage prodigy operating at this level on the biggest stage of football. Fans who go to stadiums go there to enjoy Yamal. In Barcelona it happens, too, but there is also a sense of caution; of wanting Yamal to be like this for a long time and make their club the dominant force they dream of becoming again.
The World Cup has glimpsed flashes of Lamine Yamal’s talent to date (Michael Steele/Getty Images)
While Yamal is going through the transition from wonderkid into possibly one of football’s true greats of modern times, Ronaldo has had to deal with heading in the other direction; downward from the very top of the sport to, well, clearly still very good, but unable to do what he could before, now aged 41.
Combine that with still having arguably the largest ego football has ever seen and Ronaldo makes himself an obvious target for criticism. A bit of humility would go a long way in combating those attacks, but it would also fly in the face of what has made Ronaldo so incredibly successful.
There has never been any denying the ego of the man. He exudes self-confidence at all times and uses it to propel him on and off the field.
“That’s part of my success,” he told El Mundo when he was at the height of his powers in 2015.“I was born to be the best. That’s the way I am, and if all my achievements in football are down to that, then I wouldn’t change a thing.You can’t live obsessing about what other people think about you. Not even God can please everyone.”
Not God, not Ronaldo.
Jorge Valdano, former director general at Real Madrid, perhaps summed it up best when he called Ronaldo “the most profitable ego in the history of football”.
Ronaldo tends not to respond directly to critics online, although during interviews he often references things that have been said about him. Instead, he leaves that to his sisters, who regularly go in to bat for him on social media.
Just last month, his sister Elma Aveiro called journalist Carlos Daniel (who had questioned Ronaldo’s place in the Portugal side) “weak, stupid and senile”. And the pre-match narrative ahead of Portugal’s last-32 game with Croatia was shaped by another sibling, Katia Aveiro, saying she believed this summer’s tournament was going to be her brother’s “last dance”.
Cristiano Ronaldo tends to let his sisters respond to online trolls (Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
Below the bravado, it must be difficult for Ronaldo to see his great rival, Messi, plus younger pretenders to their thrones, Mbappe, Haaland and Harry Kane, all outshine him during the World Cup.
His position in the football ecosystem has changed. He is now the ageing GOAT whose obsession with goals, glory, fame and recognition remains, but without the physical capability to deliver what he once could.
His substitution in Portugal’s 2-1 victory over Croatia also showed, despite common opinion, that he is not completely untouchable. Roberto Martinez surprisingly withdrew Ronaldo with the score at 1-1, and he watched from the bench as back-up striker Goncalo Ramos headed home the winning goal.
Those anticipating a strop for the ages on the sidelines, however, were disappointed, with Ronaldo dutifully joining in the celebrations near the corner flag after Ramos’ winner. Earlier, when replaced by Ruben Neves, his lip looked pretty wobbly as he realised he may have been leaving the field for the final time in a World Cup.
You wouldn’t exactly say Ronaldo has handled his slight fall from grace with, well, grace, but his penchant for tantrums, if the Croatia match is anything to go by, has ceased — even if it helped that Portugal won.
When Ronaldo and Yamal collide in Dallas, one ego will take the acclaim and the glory. Ronaldo would love nothing more than to put a young pretender in his place, but should Spain triumph, we may never see football’s greatest ego on the big stage again.
Yamal is ready to take his place.
