section_path: Early and personal life
section_name: Early and personal life
paragraph_text: Early and personal life
  
  Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana was born on 13 July 2007 in Esplugues de Llobregat, in the Barcelona metropolitan area in Catalonia, to waitress Sheila Ebana and building painter Mounir Nasraoui. Yamal's mother was born in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, and his father is from Larache, Morocco. They gave him a compound given name to honour two people, named Lamine and Yamal, who helped them financially shortly before their son was born. Yamal is a Muslim.
  
  His parents separated when he was three, although both remained present through his childhood. The family had lived in Mataró, but around the time of his parents' separation, Yamal's mother moved to Granollers, where Yamal started playing football at the local club La Torreta at the age of four. He would alternate between both cities to spend time with his parents. With his father in Mataró, Yamal grew up in Rocafonda, a neighbourhood described by El País as "forgotten, isolated and stigmatized"; he celebrates goals by making a gesture of the number 304, the last digits of the local postcode 08304. Following his success, his popularisation of the number has been credited with bringing pride and recognition to the working class community of Rocafonda.
  
  At six years of age, Yamal was scouted by Barcelona and was invited to training sessions at La Masia, signing for the club in 2014 moving to Barcelona to live and train at the academy. Growing up, Yamal's footballing idols were Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi, and Neymar.
  
  Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana was born on 13 July 2007 in Esplugues de Llobregat, in the Barcelona metropolitan area in Catalonia, to waitress Sheila Ebana and building painter Mounir Nasraoui. Yamal's mother was born in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, and his father is from Larache, Morocco. They gave him a compound given name to honour two people, named Lamine and Yamal, who helped them financially shortly before their son was born. Yamal is a Muslim.
  
  His parents separated when he was three, although both remained present through his childhood. The family had lived in Mataró, but around the time of his parents' separation, Yamal's mother moved to Granollers, where Yamal started playing football at the local club La Torreta at the age of four. He would alternate between both cities to spend time with his parents. With his father in Mataró, Yamal grew up in Rocafonda, a neighbourhood described by El País as "forgotten, isolated and stigmatized"; he celebrates goals by making a gesture of the number 304, the last digits of the local postcode 08304. Following his success, his popularisation of the number has been credited with bringing pride and recognition to the working class community of Rocafonda.
  
  At six years of age, Yamal was scouted by Barcelona and was invited to training sessions at La Masia, signing for the club in 2014 moving to Barcelona to live and train at the academy. Growing up, Yamal's footballing idols were Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi, and Neymar.