Lamine Yamal almost joined European giants from Barcelona aged 14

LAMINE YAMAL almost never became the Barcelona wonderkid he is today.

Yamal, 18, burst onto the scene at Barca in 2023 at the tender age of 15 years, nine months and 16 days old.

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The winger quickly rose to superstardom and went on to amass a staggering total of 27 goals and 37 assists in 109 appearances with the Blaugrana.

The star forward already counts two LaLiga titles and one Copa del Rey trophy with the Catalan giants and also orchestrated Spain’s Euro 2024 triumph.

However, Barcelona’s poster boy almost never played at the Nou Camp.

According to Bild, Yamal almost joined Bayern Munich in 2022 at the age of 14.

Bayern made a serious attempt to sign the wonderkid after the club’s hierarchy were shown clips by the scouting department.

That was during a time when the Bavarians were actually interested in another Barcelona prospect, who was Gavi.

And then sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic as well as technical director Marco Neppe expressed their interest to Yamal’s agent at the time who was former Barcelona star Ivan de la Pena.

De la Pena informed Bayern he would discuss their interest with Yamal’s family, but a deal couldn’t be made before July 13, 2023 as that was when his client would turn 16.

However, things took an unexpected turn soon after as the right winger hired super agent Jorge Mendes as his new representative.

Mendes informed Bayern they would have to splash a fee in the region of £4.3million to convince the teenager’s family to move him to Munich.

But the German giants’ chiefs took too long deciding whether to not to splash so much money for such a young player and thus a deal never materialised.

Yamal – who joined Barcelona aged just six – made his debut in the Barcelona first team in April 2023, aged just 15 years, nine months and 16 days.

Less than a year later he received his first international cap for Spain, aged 16 years and 57 days.