At the end of Barcelona’s 1-0 win over Real Mallorca this weekend, the best two players on the pitch put their arms around each other’s shoulders and walked towards the end of Montjuic where Antonio Rebollo’s arrow once lit the Olympic flame. Wearing 33 and 27, one is a defender, the other a forward, both just a couple of kids having a laugh. Waiting for them beneath the torch and way across the track were the fans who had spent the night singing their names, holding on to a new hope. Pau Cubarsí Paredes and Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana were born in Estanyol and Esplugues, Catalonia, and they are younger than Robert Lewandowski. Put together.
Cubarsí has just turned 17, Yamal is 16 and on a cold night they led Barcelona to victory and back to the light. At one end, Cubarsí had done battle with the Canadian Cyle Larin and the Kosovan Vedat Muriqi. The latter a man whose coach calls him “a big, ugly beast” and a 6ft 4in striker you’d “cross the street to avoid”. The teenager took on “two towers” in Xavi’s words, and had come out on top. At the other end, Yamal had crashed one shot against the bar that would have won it and then struck another that actually did. It came from nowhere, a goal so good they celebrated it twice: first when it curled in, then when it was played back on the screen, not so much a roar but an “Oh!” which was even more eloquent. Did you see that?!
