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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Barney Ronay

Lamine Yamal: the perfect dopamine-hit footballer for our terminally online world

Illustration of Lamine Yamal holding the world in one hand.
Lamine Yamal is the first superstar to emerge in the terminally online world, out there to be consumed, worshipped, pulled apart. Illustration: David Lyttleton

There’s always that guy. Never be that guy. Fight the urge to become that guy, to yearn always for the old, good, safe things, to feel headphone-panic and selfie-disgust, to see moral decay in haircuts. Except, sometimes it turns out you just are that guy, propped up in your easy chair, eyes blazing, smelling slightly of damp laundry, and holding forth on a theme as old as all human life.

That theme is always the same. You know that thing you like? Well, it’s actually bad. And in a way that I will now explain at great length. So here he comes again, that guy. And this time he’s talking about Lamine Yamal. Enjoyed that, did you?

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