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LICENCE TO THRILL
Euro 2024 final will change the lives of so many players but Lamine Yamal has already changed football, writes Kris Boyd
And one of his up-and-coming international cohorts could be a club team mate of his next season
EURO 2024 will be remembered as the tournament when some of the game’s biggest stars failed to shine.
Cristiano Ronaldo was in tears. Kylian Mbappe hid behind his mask.
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Luka Modric bid farewell to the big stage, and Kevin De Bruyne just couldn’t find a spark.
At times, it has felt like Europe’s elite were plagued by tiredness, fatigue and a lack of inspiration.
And yet this tournament could be settled by the game’s NEXT big superstar.
Lamine Yamal turned 17 only today.
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He’s already become the youngest goalscorer at a Euros.
Tomorrow night he’ll become the youngest finalist at a major tournament.
The Barcelona wonderkid could light up the showpiece in Berlin — and heap more Euro final misery on Gareth Southgate’s England.
We were told that this Spain team didn’t have any superstars. The days of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets were gone.
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But Yamal has emerged as the player of the tournament, and the next big Spanish superstar.
When I was 16, I was in Kilmarnock's youth team, and getting the odd chance to train with the first team to make up the numbers.
You have 20/20 vision if you spot the 3 different Euros trophies in 15 secs
Now the birthday boy is the name on everyone’s lips — and a breath of fresh air in a tournament that has often threatened to turn stale.
Yamal looks comfortable in any company. He looks as though he’s enjoying himself.
So many kids nowadays are over-coached. They are told to do this or do that, ordered to stay in their shape.
But Yamal has been given a real freedom to go and play the game his way.
He takes people on, he has shots at goal — just ask France — and he creates chances.
He’s not chained to one position. He’s not told, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Just pass the ball back inside’.
Boss Luis de la Fuente has given him licence to thrill, and that could be a problem for England. I like Nico Williams on the other wing, too. He’s also a real class act and may well join Yamal at Barca next season.
Then again, you can only admire Spain in every department after six straight wins at these Euros.
Alvaro Morata was wiped out by a security guard after the semi- final win over France, but not too many others have restricted him in this tournament.
He’s not like David Villa or Fernando Torres, the heroes of previous Euros success, but the captain’s role is vital to everything Spain do well.
Believe me, there aren’t many strikers who put in more of a shift than Morata.
His workrate is unbelievable, and sometimes you even see him back in the full-back positions helping out.
Rodri is a class act in midfield and I like the full-backs, Dani Carvajal and Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella.
It’s incredible to think Spain’s only competitive defeat since the World Cup in Qatar came against Scotland at Hampden.
There are plenty in the Tartan Army who hope that astonishing record continues beyond tomorrow evening.
But for that to happen, Spain will have to win the personal duels.
Kyle Walker against Williams will be a contest between two of the most rapid players in the tournament.
Rodri will try to quash the threat of his Manchester City team-mate Phil Foden.
An ex-City man, Aymeric Laporte, will have to shackle England captain Harry Kane.
And someone will need to stop Yamal from once again showing his class.
Just think of Luke Shaw for a moment. A goalscorer in the last Euros final, he’s not started a game since last February. There’s now a clamour for him to get the nod ahead of Kieran Trippier.
But I suspect the last person he’d want to face in these circumstances would be Yamal.
As a team, Spain should edge the final. But you wouldn’t be surprised if England somehow did it.
Like so many of the game’s superstars, Southgate’s side have failed to fire for long stretches in Germany.
But reaching back-to-back Euros finals is a fantastic achievement and they deserve credit for that feat. They were ridiculed by some of my colleagues in the media for their group campaign and scraping past Slovakia.
Then everything changed with the penalty shoot-out win against Switzerland, and that dramatic late show against the Netherlands.
It baffles me how anyone’s opinion can change so quickly.
Mind you, it might well change back if things don’t go well for England.
I like watching them. They have some fine players.
Just a month ago, Jude Bellingham was lifting the Champions League, with some Real Madrid team-mates who will be opponents.
Now he could get his hands on the European Championship trophy for the first time in England’s history.
The final will change the lives of a team of young men forever.
It’s not been the tournament for Ronaldo or Mbappe, Modric or De Bruyne.
They have looked tired and shorn of their magical powers.
Personally, I reckon a lot of it is down to the pressures being placed on players by an unrelenting schedule.
The Tartan Army also returned home weary after their exertions in Germany.
There’s a joke doing the rounds that they have supported seven teams this summer, Scotland, Serbia, Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia, Switzerland and the Dutch — and they are still waiting to celebrate a win.
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They will be slipping on their Spain tops and reaching out for the San Miguel in the hope their luck changes.
For that to happen, a lad still not old enough to have a pint will need to cement his place in Euros folklore.
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