Mbappe and Yamal rivalry backed to boost La Liga brand | OneFootball

La Liga president Javier Tebas has backed a rivalry between Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal to boost the image of El Clásico and Spanish football next season.

Yamal has been one of the stories of the summer with the 16-year-old starring during Spain’s run to the final of Euro 2024.

The teenager has become the youngest-ever player and goalscorer at a European Championship, after scoring a spectacular goal in Spain’s semi-final win over France.

Yamal’s achievements are outstanding for a player who has combined Euro 2024 performances with school studies this summer and Tebas admits the winger’s early emergence indicated he was a special talent.

“For Lamine, those of us who have followed his development already saw that he was a different player,” Tebas told Sport. “And he is proving it. Stars are born different.”

Next season Yamal will form part of a Barcelona team hoping to wrestle La Liga supremacy back from arch-rivals Real Madrid.

The latter have reinforced their squad with the superstar signing of Kylian Mbappe from Paris Saint-Germain and head into the 2024-25 campaign as Spanish and European champions.

Yamal got the better of Mbappe in the Euro 2024 semi-finals and Tebas believes a budding rivalry between the two can enhance the La Liga brand on the world stage.

“El Clásico is one of our great products, although not the only one. In the eras of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, it was the fight between the two greatest players in the world in the two greatest clubs in the world, and we rely a lot on that image to accelerate growth.

Barcelona has great players, such as Pedri and Gavi, born in the club. And it marks another style of star growth in football; one that is more acquired, like Madrid, compared to one that is born within the club itself, like Barcelona.”

Read – 10 European Championship records broken at Euro 2024

See more – Barcelona ‘close’ to beating Premier League clubs to Spain star

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