Lamine Yamal’s 35-year-old father has reportedly announced his surprising engagement to a woman just five years older than the Barcelona star.
Mounir Nasraoui and his fiancée, 23-year-old Khristina, have seen their relationship come under scrutiny in recent months due to their 12-year age gap.
But the couple have seemingly managed to block out the noise as they announced their engagement this week in news which shocked fans.
Yamal’s father, who is something of a social media personality and boasts some 1.3million followers on Instagram, shared the happy news with a post on the platform.
In a hint that a wedding could be on the way, Nasraoui captioned a photo of the pair cuddled up together on a balcony with just a black heart emoji and a ring.
Though it’s not exactly clear when the couple first sparked up a romance, Khristina has appeared on Nasraoui’s Instagram on a number of occasions in recent times.
But while his dad’s love life is evidently blossoming, Yamal’s is anything but. The 18-year-old split this week from his Argentinian singer girlfriend Nikki Nicole, who at 25 is older than Nasraoui’s partner.
Having gone official over the summer, Spanish journalist Javier de Hoyos announced that the superstar couple had called time on their romance a couple of days go.
‘Lamine Yamal has just written to me,’ he said on showbiz programme D Corazon on La 1.
‘This is an exclusive. Lamine tells me he and Nicki Nicole, who as you know was his girlfriend, are no longer together.
‘But there are a a few things he wants to clarify because in the last few days there has been a lot of speculation about whether he could have been unfaithful to Nicki or not.’
Looking at the mobile phone he was holding in his hand Javier, one of D Corazon’s two presenters, said: ‘He’s cleared this up. He says they’re not together anymore and it hasn’t been because of any infidelity. We’ve simply separated and that’s it.
‘Everything that’s been coming out has nothing to do with our relationship.
‘Lamine tells me the trip to Italy has nothing to do with all of this, that he was no longer dating Nicki when he went and he hasn’t been with anyone else.’
News of Yamal’s father’s engagement comes just a couple of short months after the Moroccan was subjected to a traumatic ordeal while walking his dog.
Back in August, he suffered multiple stab wounds after being attacked in the town of Mataro, around 20 miles north of Barcelona.
He is believed to have become embroiled in an argument with people in the area before a fight broke out later that day in which the 35-year-old was seriously injured, according to La Vanguardia.
Three people were later arrested by Spanish police and accused of attempted murder.
Yamal’s father was eventually lucky to make a full recovery and opened up about the horrifying incident in an interview with Spanish program El Chiringuito a couple of days later.
‘Thank God they have just taken me up to the ward and I am a little better,’ he said. ‘We must be calmer, for the good of everyone, for mine and my family’s .
‘I must be calmer because I have no other choice, we must think that justice will do its job and it will surely do so, that is the most important thing. Thank God, who is very great, everything has a solution.
‘Of course I was afraid, I saw myself between life and death , afraid like any human being.’
Nasraoui has been his son’s biggest supporters over the years and was present as 17-year-old Yamal secured the European Championship title with Spain where they beat England in the final.
Yamal was his nation’s star of the tournament, with his father previously declaring that the rising superstar could ‘be greater than [Lionel] Messi.’
And at the Ballon d’Or presentation in September, Nasraoui claimed Yamal is the ‘best player in the world by far’ after watching PSG forward Ousmane Dembele scoop the coveted prize.
As he walked by Spanish media following the ceremony, Nasraoui confidently claimed ‘next year he’ll be ours’ before speaking to reporters afterwards.
‘I wouldn’t say it was theft,’ he said, ‘but rather moral harm to a human being.
‘Because I believe Lamine Yamal is the best player in the world. By far, by far. Not because he’s my son, but because he’s the best player in the world. He has no rival. He’s Lamine Yamal.
‘Something very strange happened here. Next year, he’ll be the Spanish Ballon d’Or winner.’
Despite missing out on the Ballon d’Or, Yamal was awarded the Kopa Trophy for Young Player of the Year.
