A son of Morocco ends France’s reign: Lamine Yamal’s Spain reach the World Cup final

By MNTV Staff Writer

Football’s sense of symmetry can be exquisite. Six days ago, France ended Morocco’s World Cup and, with it, the last African, Asian and Muslim presence in the tournament.

On Tuesday night at AT&T Stadium, France’s own tournament was ended by a teenager whose father was born in Morocco.

Spain beat France 2-0 to reach their first World Cup final since they lifted the trophy in 2010, and at the centre of it — as he has been all summer — stood Lamine Yamal, one day past his 19th birthday.

Moment that broke France

Yamal did not score. He did not need to. The decisive act came in the 22nd minute, and it was a piece of pure teenage cunning.

Lucas Digne, France’s veteran left-back, misjudged a dropping ball with his head. Yamal, sensing it before anyone else, tore in from behind to challenge in the penalty area. The ball glanced off the leaping teenager’s elbow, and Digne — playing his 63rd game for France, six days from his 33rd birthday — swung through and caught him on the hip. Penalty.

Mikel Oyarzabal placed it low into the right corner. It was his fifth goal of the tournament, his 30th in 60 games for Spain, and it carried a statistic that told the whole story of the night: it was the first time either France or Spain had trailed in any of their seven matches at this World Cup.

Youth had read the game a fraction faster than experience. That was the margin.

Suffocation, then killer blow

What followed was less a football match than a demonstration. France arrived as FIFA’s top-ranked side, having outscored their opponents 16-2, with Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé both chasing the Golden Boot. Spain simply closed the game down — constricting passing lanes, swarming every French break, extinguishing attacks before they caught light.

In one early sequence, Dembélé released Mbappé into space; within three seconds, three Spanish shirts had surrounded him and the danger had evaporated.

The second goal, in the 58th minute, was Spain at their most Spanish: Pedro Porro exchanged a give-and-go with Dani Olmo, split the French defence, and finished. Moments later Yamal had the ball in the net himself, only for a tight offside call to deny him the goal his performance deserved.

France did not register a shot on target until the 95th minute. They never beat the goalkeeper.

Didier Deschamps’ side, chasing a place in a third consecutive World Cup final, will instead play for third place in Miami Gardens on Saturday.

He said he did not fear them

The build-up had been loud. Yamal had declared that Spain did not fear France, drew accusations of disrespect, and then — with the serenity that has defined him since he was 16 — doubled down.

His Barcelona teammate Jules Koundé, a Frenchman, defended him. Spain captain Rodri publicly urged the teenager to manage his “anxiety” and calm down.

He did not need calming. He needed a penalty area and a defender with a heavy first touch.

This is now a pattern. At Euro 2024 he became the tournament’s youngest-ever scorer at 16, in a semi-final Spain won 2-1 — against France. In the 2024-25 Nations League semi-final, he scored twice — against France.

On Tuesday, he won the penalty that beat them again. Three meetings at the sharp end of major tournaments, three French exits, one teenager at the heart of all of them.

Thread back to Morocco

For Muslim supporters, this victory carried a second layer. Yamal is a practising Muslim, born in Esplugues de Llobregat to a Moroccan father, Mounir Nasraoui, and a mother from Equatorial Guinea.

Days ago, in Dallas, he was seen raising his hands in dua both before Spain’s win over Portugal and again after it — images that travelled across the Muslim world.

The tournament had already delivered its cruelty to the Muslim world. Morocco, the African champions and the last Muslim-majority nation standing, were beaten 2-0 by France in the quarter-finals, their 34-match unbeaten run ended, their dream of a first African or Arab final deferred once more.

When they went out, so did the last representative of Africa, Asia and the Muslim world from a World Cup that had begun with more of them than any in history.

There is no revenge in football, and Yamal plays for Spain, not Morocco — a choice of his own, like Brahim Díaz’s in the opposite direction. But there was something for Moroccan supporters in watching a young man of their blood undo the team that had undone theirs. The diaspora, as this tournament has shown again and again, is never fully on one side of any line.

One more match

Spain now wait on the winner of Argentina and England, who meet in Atlanta on Wednesday, with the final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on Sunday.

Sixteen years after their only World Cup triumph, La Roja are 90 minutes from a second — and they will go into it as favourites, with the meanest defence in the tournament and a 19-year-old who has never once looked like he belongs anywhere but the biggest stage.

He turned 19 on Monday.

On Tuesday he ended France’s World Cup. On Sunday he could win one.