Revista de la Liga with Graham Hunter

As I leave Berlin - the city of Jesse Owens, David Bowie and now Lamine Yamal - I’m recording this final report from Euro 2024, where I have been embedded once more with the Spain team.

I saw the treble winners of 2008-12 up close too, and they may not have a prime Iniesta or Xavi, but in their own way I think this team is just as good.

Some of them spoke to me after the final, and what a joyful, brotherly bunch they are. The trophy is in good hands.

I hope you enjoy this latest update from Germany, as Spain and I depart Donaueschingen, where they have trained and relaxed and prepared for the mesmeric performances you've been watching in this tournament. These reports are also available - for free - at my new Substack, the link is coming up. If you subscribe to this site, you'll receive regular posts - podcasts and written work on all aspects of Spanish football - directly to your email inbox. It's very simple to subscribe, and once you do, everything comes straight to your email. Soon, I'l be focusing all my indepent reporting on this site. It be great if you could join me. https://revistadelaliga.substack.com/

This is my first post on Substack - the new home for my reporting on Spanish football.

I hope as many of you as possible will subscribe to receive all my work to your email inbox - for the time being, I’m choosing to make this entirely free of charge.

Today you have a choice - listen to this short podcast on the 16-year-old who has lit up the Euros (and who I sat down with for his first major television interview); or read the edited version below.

More coming soon…

This inaugural Substack is about Lamine Yamal – but before I talk about him, I have to talk about Samuel Eto'o.

When we were converting the book, Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, into a documentary film with Universal Studios, we sent one of our producers and cameramen to Turkey, for a charity game that was organised by Eto'o. It happened to be on the weekend that there was an insurrection and a putsch for power. Everything got sealed off. The players were desperately trying to leave the place where the game was being played in private jets, but our producer, Mark Guillen, insisted to Eto'o that, despite the fact that there was threat of gunplay, he should fulfil his interview. And one of the great answers which made the film was Eto'o saying:

When I arrived at Barcelona, everybody was like, Ronaldinho, ooh!  But the guy that I liked best was Iniesta. Iniesta and Xavi would be in my team, always. They have the great gift of making an infinitely complicated sport look simple.

Do you see the link?

The thing I've been writing about Lamine Yamal since Xavi Hernandez put him in the Barcelona team, aged 15 at the time, was this supernatural ability to choose the right things to do with the ball almost all the time.

That's a rare skill in anybody. Rodri, the other day, said that he watches games back every time because he wants to see what he didn't see on the pitch. Now, if you’re in the middle of the pitch and you’re the pivote, compared to a winger, that peripheral vision to see everything and get everything right is far harder.

Lamine Yamal began learning the game in the park outside his front door, in a bumpy neighbourhood called Rocafonda. And it so happened that not long before he was born, the Catalan Ayuntamiento decided to invest millions of euros in underprivileged zones of the region.

Rocafonda was one of the places that got a big grant and they built a park.  And that park had a football surface on it.  And that's where four-year-old Lamine Yamal would play with his dad. His dad was 25 at the time, he played with his cousins and the kid would join in, and they put him in goals.

But he learned his tricks on a place that, in the winter, was soaking and muddy and wet and full of puddles.

Three years later, he got spotted by Barcelona.

And he went to La Masia, and he told me he didn't know how to lace his boots.  Somebody had to do that for him. Barcelona didn't know what to do with him so they played him at left-back. And he scored a hat-trick. Tiniest kid on the park. First day at Barca training. Played out of position. Hat-trick.

But, back to Eto'o. Decisions on the ball.

Even very good players find it hard to make the right decisions about what to do with possession all the time.

To whom does the ball go? Do I go alone? Do I take on my opponent?  Does the pace of the match need accelerated or does it need pausa, does it need calm? Do I recirculate the ball? Where is everybody else in my team?

These decisions need to go through your head in a millisecond while there's noise. Somebody might clatter you; somebody might close you down.

And in Lamine Yamal, although he's been trained at La Masia, these decisions seem innate. Which is, to me, the most astonishing thing.

We saw different aspects of him last night. He nibbled at Rabiot, who had been jipping him up in advance.  ‘If he wants to go to the final, he'll have to do far more than he's done so far’. 

And Yamal at the end goes up to the camera with the fingers and thumb clapping together like a yappy mouth: keep talking.

When he won his player of the match, and did the interview on the pitch, and then the interview in the press room, it was like, yeah, whatever. As calm off the pitch as he is on the pitch. A gift to us all.

As soon as he scored, I turned to my colleague and said, ‘Listen, he scored a goal like that for Spain against France age 15 in the under-17s, about 18, 20 months ago. And lo and behold, my colleague went and found it and it's identical. That goal was coming. The style was guessable.

Goal of the tournament? I think it probably will be.

Young player of the tournament?  I think he's won that already. 

Player of the tournament?  Well, if he stars on Sunday night, then yeah, he might be named player of the tournament and young player of the tournament.

He'll now, I think, get enough votes to be top-five in the Ballon d'Or voting. At 16.

And above and beyond the preternatural decision-making, the football intelligence, the thing we need to focus on today and forever is: doesn't it make you happy watching him?  Doesn't it bring you joy?

Never lose sight of that.

Viva Lamine.

Viva España.

Today’s story comes from Michael O’Neill, who describes how he kindled the team spirit in his Northern Ireland squad.

Listen to the classic versions of the original episodes:

Classic Big Interview: Michael O’Neill Part One - The Big Interview with Graham Hunter | Acast

Classic Big Interview: Michael O’Neill Part Two - The Big Interview with Graham Hunter | Acast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here’s another chance to hear my interview with Craig Gordon from season two.

This was a fascinating discussion about Craig’s remarkable campaign at Celtic, during which he proved he could play out from the back – even at the Camp Nou. We also talked about the devastating injury which kept the Scotland No1 out of the game for two years. Craig revealed his admiration for Gigi Buffon, and explained the public stance he took against a despotic owner at Hearts.

Subscribe to The Big Interview YouTube channel

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s story comes from Terry Butcher, who describes his favourite Iron Maiden gig – when the England, Ipswich and Rangers legend actually performed on stage with the heavy rockers.

Listen to the original full episode:

Terry Butcher: Beattie, Banter & Sir Bobby - The Big Interview with Graham Hunter | Acast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s story comes from Joe Jordan, who reminisces about the sheer genius of Celtic legend Jimmy Johnstone.

Listen to the classic versions of the original episodes:

Classic Big Interview: Joe Jordan Part One - The Big Interview with Graham Hunter | Acast

Classic Big Interview: Joe Jordan Part Two - The Big Interview with Graham Hunter | Acast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here’s another chance to hear my interview with Peter Crouch from season two.

Peter was a footballer who played with an accomplished technical ability and a sense of fun which made him a joy to watch. He was so much more than a good touch for a big man. In this Big Interview we discover learning the game using the Coerver Method, some of his best strikes, his love of Italian football, and the ‘Stoke effect’.

Subscribe to The Big Interview YouTube channel

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s story comes from Peter Beardsley, who expresses his love for Tino Asprilla, an extraordinary footballer and one of the funniest and most eccentric men ever to have played the game.

Listen to the classic versions of the original episodes:

Classic Big Interview: Peter Beardsley Part One - The Big Interview with Graham Hunter | Acast

Classic Big Interview: Peter Beardsley Part Two - The Big Interview with Graham Hunter | Acast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s story comes from Jody Morris, who describes his protracted exit from his boyhood heroes Chelsea.

Listen to the classic versions of the original episodes:

Classic Big Interview: Jody Morris Part One - The Big Interview with Graham Hunter | Acast

Classic Big Interview: Jody Morris Part Two - The Big Interview with Graham Hunter | Acast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.