The precocious rise of Lamine Yamal, swifter than either Pelé’s or Lionel Messi’s so far, is shattering the norms of football.

年轻球员拉明•亚马尔(Lamine Yamal)的崛起速度打破了足球界的常规，比贝利(Pelé)和莱昂内尔•梅西(Lionel Messi)都要快。

He is breaking the mould of Spanish society too. Yamal and his fellow winger and friend, Nico Williams, are two of the Spanish team’s first black heroes of immigrant origin. Yamal’s father was born in Morocco, and his mother in Equatorial Guinea.

他也在打破西班牙社会的传统。亚马尔和他的边锋队友兼朋友尼科•威廉姆斯(Nico Williams)是西班牙队第一批移民出身的黑人英雄中的两位。亚马尔的父亲出生预摩洛哥，母亲出生于赤道几内亚。

After they separated, Yamal lived with his mother in a poor immigrant neighbourhood of Mataró on the Catalan coast. He celebrates goals by signing the number 304 with his hands, in honour of his home district’s postcode.

他们分开后，亚马尔和他的母亲住在加泰罗尼亚海岸马塔洛一个贫穷的移民社区。进球后，他会用手比出数字304，以纪念家乡的邮政编码。

Last week, photographs surfaced of the baby Yamal being washed in a bathtub by Messi in 2007. Taken for a charity calendar, the pictures now assume a new meaning. The Argentine great looks to be anointing his footballing heir.

上周，2007年梅西在浴缸中为婴儿时期的亚马尔清洗身体的照片曝光。这些为慈善日历拍摄的照片现在有了新的含义。这位阿根廷巨星似乎在为自己的足球继承人加冕。

Nico Williams’ parents came to Spain from Ghana. They walked barefoot through the Sahara, after being abandoned by people traffickers. The burning sands did lasting damage to his father’s feet. The couple scaled a high fence to enter Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla; his mother was unknowingly pregnant with her oldest son.

尼科•威廉姆斯的父母从加纳来到西班牙。在被人贩子遗弃后，他们赤脚走过撒哈拉沙漠。灼热的沙子给他父亲的双脚造成了持久的伤害。这对夫妇翻越高高的围栏，进入西班牙的北非飞地梅利利亚；他的母亲在不知情的情况下怀上了大儿子。

Detained in Melilla, they were advised by a lawyer to tear up their Ghanaian papers and say they were refugees from the Liberian war. Once in Spain, they named their newborn child Iñaki after a Basque priest who helped them.

他们在梅利利亚被拘留，一名律师建议他们撕毁加纳证件，并说自己是利比里亚战争的难民。一到西班牙，他们就以帮助过他们的一位巴斯克牧师的名字为新生儿取名伊尼亚基(Iñaki)。

Poverty forced the father to spend years working lowly jobs in London, including as a security guard at Chelsea — one of the top football clubs now reportedly chasing his son Nico.

贫穷迫使父亲常年在伦敦做底层工作，包括在切尔西（据说现在追逐他儿子尼科的顶级足球俱乐部之一）当保安。

The Williams brothers grew up speaking Basque and Spanish, and joined Basque-only club Athletic Bilbao, where Iñaki set a Spanish record by playing 251 consecutive matches. He represents Ghana in international football. Nico joined him in Athletic’s first team aged 17.

威廉姆斯兄弟从小讲巴斯克语和西班牙语，并加入了只讲巴斯克语的毕尔巴鄂竞技俱乐部，在那里，伊尼亚基创造了连续参加251场比赛的西班牙纪录。他代表加纳参加国际足球比赛。尼科17岁时加入毕尔巴鄂一队。

At 15, Yamal became Barcelona’s youngest debutant. This was partly because he is brilliant, and partly because Barça are desperate.

15岁时，亚马尔成为巴塞罗那最年轻的首发球员。这一方面是因为他才华横溢，另一方面则是因为巴萨走投无路。

The debt-ridden club, unable to afford big stars, leans increasingly on its famed youth academy. Three of the club’s five youngest players — Yamal, Gavi and Ansu Fati — have debuted for Barcelona since 2019.

这家负债累累的俱乐部买不起大牌球星，因此越来越倚重其著名的青训营。自2019年以来，俱乐部最年轻的五名球员中有三人——亚马尔、加维(Gavi)和安苏•法蒂(Ansu Fati)——已代表巴萨首发出场。

The worry is that their immature bodies may not be ready for the intense workload demanded of elite players: Fati has suffered repeated injuries, and now, aged 21, appears unwanted at Barcelona; Gavi missed the Euros after tearing his anterior cruciate ligaments.

令人担忧的是，他们尚未成熟的身体可能无法适应精英球员所需的高强度工作：法蒂屡次受伤，如今21岁的他在巴塞罗那似乎已不受欢迎；加维因前十字韧带撕裂错过了欧洲杯。

A knee injury in the quarter-final also ruled out a fellow Barcelona player, the frequently hurt Pedri. Spain hopes that Yamal, visibly still a child with braces and a cherubic face, will hold up better.

经常受伤的佩德里在四分之一决赛中膝盖受伤，也无缘比赛。西班牙希望，戴着牙套、脸庞稚气未脱的亚马尔能坚持下去。

The left-footer became the country’s youngest debutant last September, aged 16 years and 57 days. He and Williams, who turned 22 this Friday, look like La Roja’s missing links.

去年9月，这位16岁零57天的左脚球员成为该国最年轻的首发球员。他和本周五刚满22岁的威廉姆斯，看起来就像是西班牙队缺少的一环。

Spain fluffed the World Cup in Qatar playing fruitless sideways passing football. The duo give the team forward penetration. Defenders stand off them, terrified of their pace, granting them space to act.

在卡塔尔世界杯(World Cup)上，西班牙队的边路传球没能取得成果。这对搭档给球队带来了前场渗透。后卫们站在他们身后，惧怕他们的速度，给了他们行动的空间。

Yamal, in particular, possesses the three-asset package of a great forward: he can dribble, pass or shoot. He and Messi were the only players in Euro 2024 and the 2022 World Cup to record “15+ chances created, 15+ shots and 15+ dribbles”, according to data provider Opta.

尤其是亚马尔，他拥有一名伟大前锋的三大法宝：带球、传球和射门。根据数据提供商Opta的数据，他和梅西是2024年欧洲杯和2022年世界杯上仅有的“创造机会15次以上、射门15次以上和带球15次以上”的球员。

Spain build attacks over the left or centre, luring in the opposition before switching the ball right for Yamal to finish them. His 20-metre drive against France in the semi-final made him the youngest scorer at a Euros or World Cup. The second youngest, in 1958, was Pelé.

西班牙队在左路或中路发动进攻，引诱对手，然后将球传给亚马尔完成进攻。在半决赛对阵法国的比赛中，他20米外的射门使他成为欧洲杯或世界杯上最年轻的进球者。第二年轻的是1958年的贝利。

Yamal plays like a child for whom football is self-expression without stress. During victory over Georgia, he and Williams played a game of rock, paper, scissors to decide who would drink from a water bottle first.

亚马尔踢球就像一个孩子，对他来说，足球是一种没有压力的自我表达。在战胜格鲁吉亚的比赛中，他和威廉姆斯玩起了石头剪刀布的游戏，决定谁先喝水。

Most Spanish fans welcome the duo. Celebrations of them as symbols of the country’s increasing diversity have predominated.

大多数西班牙球迷都欢迎这对搭档。将它们作为这个国家日益多样化的象征的庆祝活动占据了主导地位。

At Dragones de Lavapiés, a Madrid neighbourhood club with players from more than 50 countries, Victor, 22, said of Yamal and Williams: “They were born here, they grew up here. If you question their nationality or their childhood, you are depriving that person of having a culture and a nation. Because if they’re not from here, where are they from?”

在拥有来自50多个国家球员的马德里社区俱乐部Dragones de Lavapiés， 22岁的维克托(Victor)谈到亚马尔和威廉姆斯时说：“他们在这里出生，在这里长大。如果你质疑他们的国籍或他们的童年，你就剥夺了他们的文化和民族。因为如果他们不是来自这里，那他们来自哪里？”

But anti-immigrant sentiment is powerful in Spain, too. Yamal’s father was fined €660 last year after throwing eggs at a campaign tent of the far-right Vox party, punching a party supporter.

但反移民情绪在西班牙也很强烈。去年，亚马尔的父亲向极右翼政党“呼声”(Vox)的竞选帐篷扔鸡蛋，并殴打该党的一名支持者，因此被罚款660欧元。

Similar tensions pervade Spanish football. After Atlético Madrid fans made monkey noises at Williams in April, the club escaped punishment because Spain’s football federation ruled the “isolated incident” was unpreventable.

西班牙足球界也弥漫着类似的紧张气氛。今年4月，马德里(Atlético Madrid)的球迷对威廉姆斯发出猴叫，但由于西班牙足协认为这起”孤立事件“无法避免，因此该俱乐部逃过了处罚。

On racist insults, Yamal told GQ magazine: “Before, it was taken as something normal, which is something I can’t understand, but it can’t happen any more . . . to be insulted because of your skin colour, I don’t see the point.”

关于种族主义侮辱，亚马尔告诉《GQ》杂志：“以前，这被认为是正常事，我无法理解，但你不会……因为肤色而受到侮辱了，我不明白这有什么意义。”

Now social media has become a platform for sporadic assertions that the duo aren’t “real” Spaniards. Rosa Aparicio, sociologist at the Ortega-Marañón foundation, said research showed that children of non-European immigrants face discrimination at school and in the labour market.

现在，社交媒体成了零星断言二人不是“真正的”西班牙人的平台。Ortega-Marañón基金会的社会学家罗莎•阿帕里西奥(Rosa Aparicio)说，研究表明，非欧洲移民的子女在学校和劳动力市场上面临歧视。

But she was hopeful Yamal and Williams could help change perceptions. “These kids are in part the future. They’re not criminals. They’re not everything else that is said about them.”

但她希望亚马尔和威廉姆斯能帮助改变人们的看法。“这些孩子是未来的一部分。他们不是罪犯。他们并不是像人们说的那样。”