Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal says he has experienced racism ‘a thousand times’

Spain’s Lamine Yamal says most Racism he has suffered has come from people unaware of their own comments or behaviour.Barcelona forward ‌Lamine Yamal said he has experienced Racism “a thousand ⁠times”, with ⁠many people unaware that their comments or behaviour are racist.The 19-year-old has been the target of ⁠racial abuse during his rapid rise to prominence.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Asian Games 2026: All to know about the dates, venues and sportslist 2 of 4North Korea anthem played at South’s Bangladesh hockey match at Asian Gameslist 3 of 4India star Sooryavanshi urged to be patient by coach Gambhirlist 4 of 4Abhishek Sharma hits record T20 ton as India beat Afghanistan by 127 runsend of listIn October 2024, footage appeared to show Lamine, Raphinha and Ansu ⁠Fati being racially abused during Barcelona’s match against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.The Racism-and-xenophobia" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="206483" data-entity-type="organization">Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia said in a bulletin published in March that Lamine and ‌Vinicius Jr were the most frequent targets of online racist abuse in Spain in the final quarter of 2025.Asked by former Argentina international Jorge Valdano in an interview with Spanish broadcaster Movistar whether he had directly experienced Racism, Lamine said: “A thousand times.“People are indirectly ⁠racist toward you, but maybe don’t ⁠realise it. There are a lot of comments or looks that are racist, and they don’t even notice.“If someone calls me Black, it’s ⁠not going to bother me at all, ultimately I’m Black, I’m not any other ⁠colour. Another thing is whether it’s ⁠good or bad, whether they’re saying it to offend me.“But if I’m playing a match and they paid for a ticket to see ‌me, I’m not going to get angry just because they disrespected me.”La Liga has stepped up efforts to combat racist ‌abuse ‌in stadiums following several high-profile incidents in Spanish football in recent years.