An image in Tbilisi (Georgia) describes the multifunctional nature of football, closed in its castle, conservative by nature, but at the same time a formidable amplifier of the social movements that have accompanied it since English gentlemen met 150 years ago in a tavern Covent Garden. That day football was born, with its rules and purposes, a game created by the bourgeois in the English industrial revolution and soon claimed for the enjoyment of the working class. Since then, football has never been ahead of the events that have defined social progress. As a rule, he has rejected them or has behaved with extreme belligerence, until reality has prevailed. He opposed professionalization, established feudal laws with the players and segregated women for decades, but in all cases he capitulated, defeated by the evidence of social, economic and labor transformations. So the photograph of Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, celebrating the goal of the young Barça winger, acquires an importance that says a lot about football, but even more so about the current landscape of Spain.
They are not the first players of African origin born in Spain. They are not the first black footballers to wear the national team shirt. Since Vicente Engonga, born in Torrelavega (Cantabria), made his debut in the nineties, the payroll has been long, although not abundant. Unlike England, France, Portugal and Holland, colonial powers until the middle of the 20th century, Spain received football without an empire and without immigrants. The Spanish emigrated. In 2010, when the Spanish team won the World Cup, there was no black player in the team. Only thirteen years have passed since then and the team reveals a very different profile, which is explained through Balde, Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal, three players as young as they are exciting, destined for a role of considerable symbolic importance.
In the embrace of Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams something more than just the goal is celebrated, relevant due to the age of its author but not decisive. The thrashing in Georgia was written from the first half. In strictly footballing terms, Lamine’s goal proved his precocity – 16 years and 57 days –, secured him a place of honor in the statistical chapter – no Spanish international has scored at such an early age – and confirmed the many praises he had received in the few games with Barça. The value of this photograph exceeds the limits of football. This image, of tremendous expressiveness, contains a wink that cannot be ignored. It is the celebration of two young people who represent a changed country, whether the realists and reactionaries like it or not. It is the image of an incontestable, palmary reality. It doesn’t fix anything, but its descriptive power captivates.
It is curious the vigorous role of football in explaining to us what happens outside of football. The embrace of Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams forces us to reflect on issues that hit hard on the political and social scene: immigration, citizenship rights, segregation and the value of representation. What do we talk about when we talk about these two young people? Of his soccer talent, of course. Of what they represent in the community, too. And the gigantic role of football as a player in the transformations that operate outside its scope. The photo of Williams and Yamal explains it best. The players who won the World Cup explained it earlier, the offense they received from Rubiales and the consequences that have resulted from it.
