Lamine Yamal was one of the protagonists of Spain's victory over the Netherlands in the Nations League quarter-finals. He may have missed his penalty, but he scored a much more important third goal in extra time. Since then, however, another topic has caught the media's attention: his verbal confrontation with Rafael Van der Vaart, former Dutch international for over a decade; Real Madrid, Tottenham, and Hamburger SV veteran; and now pundit for Dutch TV network NOS.
After the first match last week, when Yamal was well covered by left-back Jorrel Hato, Van der Vaart said that Yamal Hato "didn't seem to take kindly to facing Hato" and criticised "things that are starting to bother me a little: pants a little lower, not making much of an effort, slightly superficial gestures". "If you're that young, you should be happy with every minute you play for Spain. No matter how good you are, at that age, you have to prove it every minute and in every game".
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His words got quite a lot of attention in Spain, and Yamal certainly noticed, because when he scored the goal in the second match, he didn't doubt to lower his pants alongside his friend Nico Williams in the celebration. He took a swing at the Dutch pundit in his Instagram post, saying :
"Pants down, a goal, missed penalty AND IN THE SEMIFINALS HEHEHEHE GO SPAIN!" and even posting a meme with Van der Vaart reacting to his goal.
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But it didn't end there: the following day, Van der Vaart later responded to Yamal in the TV program, initially praising the player: "I think he's an incredible player. The goal was truly world-class, just like the player. Still, I would advise him not to worry so much about a former player who is too fat and says something about him."
However, he insisted that he is bothered by his attitude. "When you receive so much praise at 17, you also start to believe that the whole world revolves around you, we've all thought that way, but it's not true. If you think you're some kind of God, then you could become unpleasant".