Spain wonderkid Lamine Yamal becomes youngest-ever player in European Championship history

Lamine Yamal has become the youngest-ever player to appear at a European Championship after starting for Spain against Croatia. The 16-year-old starts on the right wing in his country’s first group game, having become a key player for Spain since scoring on debut in September. Yamal made his Barcelona debut at 15 and featured heavily for the Catalans last season. The teenager breaks the record set at Euro 2020 by Poland’s Kacper Kozlowski, who was 17 years and 246 days when he came on against Spain. Kozlowski, himself, had taken the record off Jude Bellingham, just six days after the Englishman had broken it. Speaking about Yamal ahead of the game, Spain team-mate Dani Carvajal said: “We were talking the other day [and] I told him that when I was 17 years old I was celebrating winning the Youth League with Real Madrid. “Here is here, playing in the Euros with the senior team and being relevant at Barcelona.”