Lamine Yamal has given an illuminating insight into his lifestyle by giving a house tour – including revealing the bizarre reason why he ‘can’t have a girlfriend’.
The Barcelona starboy is in the process of moving from his comparatively modest pad into Gerard Pique and Shakira’s stunning former £12million mansion.
And during the tour of his flat, which he shares with his friend Sohaib and cousin Mohamed Abde, Yamal revealed several personal details.
It turns out the world’s second-best football player, aged 18, is a fan of action figures, octopus teddies, PlayStation, and Nintendo.
Like lots of teenage lads, he is quite disorganised. Yamal admits he once had a ‘huge mountain of clothes’ piled up in one room, and he doesn’t know all of the trophies he has on display.
That said, he cares a lot about his home’s scent and has an aroma of choice: vanilla. ‘It’s important that the house smells good,’ he says. ‘I only like the smell of vanilla. Everything in my house has to be vanilla. My soap is vanilla too. I smell really good.’
But for all of his reported involvement with woman, all of his fame and success and wealth, Yamal admits he may struggle to settle down with a girlfriend.
That’s because he claims his sleep schedule is built around waking up in the middle of the night… to eat cookies.
After a tour reveals a stash of the treats by the bed, he explains: ‘I try to sleep early to wake up in the middle of the night.
‘And you’ll say, to wake up in the night and check the time and say, “I can sleep more.” No, to eat cookies.
‘I love it. It’s my favourite plan. That’s why I can’t have a girlfriend, because I wake up at night.’
Yamal gives the tour of his home to launch his new YouTube channel, which, within five hours of the first video being released, garners almost 200,000 subscribers.
Throughout the video he wears a Colombian football shirt with Luis Diaz’s name on the back. It is not known why eh feels an affinity for Diaz or Colombia.
His abode is spacious enough but nothing out of the ordinary. He and his housemates have an outdoor terrace but he admits they never got round to using it.
‘We never came up here,’ he says. ‘It’s a really good spot. But it also makes me paranoid that people can see us and I don’t like it.’
There are multiple spaces in the house dedicated to the trophies, medals, and honours Yamal has scooped up throughout his short career.
He has a replica of the Kopa Trophy, a ring to mark Spain winning the European Championship (‘I’ve never taken it out of the box’), and a LaLiga player of the month prize on display among other accolades.
But one momento rises above all. From a dedicates Adidas box, Yamal produces a ball from the 2024 European Championship semi-finals, Spain vs France.
‘The most precious thing in my house: the ball I scored with against France,’ he says, grinning. Spain, of course, went on to beat England 2-1 in the final.
There are some accessories that only a VIP could own. Yamal looks in awe as he shows off a signed vinyl record from Dr Dre. There are also some golden Beats headphones. A box full of watches.
What does he do in his free time? Besides playing on his consoles, Yamal enjoys board games and plans to take some to his new house.
He also has a DJ set and says he hopes to become a disc jockey himself.
Yamal admits he doesn’t spend much time in the kitchen, but he does have a Powerade mini fridge which has captured his heart. ‘It’s the best fridge because it’s very comfortable and small,’ he insists, rather mystifyingly.
He holds his days at school dear. In one room he shows off a gigantic certificate reading Dr Lamine Yamal.
And besides his bed, he keeps a photo of from when he was a child.
‘A photo for when I fall asleep, you know? To see it clearly.’
