How Xavi stopped Lamine Yamal from leaving Barcelona to join PSG
Xavi Hernandez’s coaching tenure at Barcelona was soured by a messy exit, but the former captain achieved plenty during his near three years at the helm.
Among the thumping Clasico victories, super cup triumphs and a defensively resolute league title, Xavi‘s greatest achievement arguably comes in the form of the role he played in keeping Lamine Yamal at Barcelona.
Long before the braces-clad teenager was being universally recognised as the best young player in the world, Yamal had attracted interest from Paris Saint-Germain, according to a new report from the Catalan outlet Mundo Deportivo.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta confirmed that he had received and flatly rejected a €250m (£210m) bid for Yamal in the summer of 2024, with various sources naming PSG as the interested party. However, the French champions would have been able to snap up the prodigy for free when they first approached Yamal during the 2022/23 campaign.
The Masia graduate was on the radar of clubs from across the continent after a prolific spell in Barcelona’s youth teams. The winger racked up a staggering haul of 357 goals in 244 official appearances for the club’s various under-age outfits.
PSG would have been within their rights to whisk Yamal away from the club he joined as a six-year-old when he turned 16 in July 2023 and was set to be out of contract. Xavi, a former Masia graduate who was manager of the first team at the time, was urged to speak to Yamal.
The pair came to an agreement, per Mundo Deportivo, that Xavi would hand Yamal a senior debut in return for his future commitment to the club. With just seven minutes remaining and Barcelona already leading 4-0 at home to Real Betis in April 2023, Xavi ushered Yamal onto the pitch.
At 15 years and 291 days old, the winger became Barcelona’s youngest player of all time. He almost marked the occasion with a goal, forcing a good save out of Rui Silva.
Yamal signed his first senior contract at Barcelona in October of that year, penning a deal until June 2026 which contains a release clause of €1bn (£840m) to put off any more approaches from PSG or any other club.