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At his first major international tournament, Lamine Yamal was a 16-year-old schoolboy who had to finish his homework in between matches as Spain were crowned European champions.
Yamal, who turned 17 the day before the Euro 2024 final victory over England, was studying for his ESO exams, a Spanish educational equivalent to GCSEs in the United Kingdom or a United States high-school diploma.
He had just finished his first senior campaign with Barcelona, with whom he made his debut aged 15 in April 2023, and that summer, he shone even brighter on the bigger stage — scoring a spectacular goal against France in the semi-finals and being voted young player of the tournament.
Two years on, he still has his cheeky smile and he still wears braces, but his profile has changed. Now, he is an international celebrity.
Yamal has starred in several commercial campaigns in the build-up to the World Cup, sharing the limelight of Adidas’ big promotional play alongside actor Timothee Chalamet, Argentina icon Lionel Messi, rapper Bad Bunny and Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham.
Last Thursday, he was announced as UNICEF’s newest goodwill ambassador, following in the footsteps of Messi and David Beckham.
The boy from Rocafonda — an underprivileged neighbourhood of Mataro, the small coastal Catalan town where Yamal grew up — now inhabits an altogether different plane of superstardom. And he is making it his own.
At Euro 2024, Yamal turned up with a backpack full of schoolwork. When joining up with his Spain team-mates in late May, he arrived in a Chanel outfit that was picked out by his private fashion stylist. From the handles of his matching handbag hung an exclusive set of pink Beats headphones that are not yet available to purchase.
Under an Instagram post shared with his 43.3million followers, Spanish pop star Rosalia (28m followers) was among those appreciating his look, writing: “Estilazo (incredible style).”
This is the new Yamal. He is the best at Barcelona, the best with Spain. For many, he is the most exciting player at this entire World Cup — the game’s biggest stage of all.
Yamal has never held himself back. Earlier this week, he spoke on his YouTube channel about switching from Nike sponsorship to Adidas back in 2023 because he saw a better platform to increase his profile.
“Nike had Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior, and I saw a huge gap for me to become the new face of Adidas,” he said. “I was 15. I trusted myself, and it was the best decision.”
Nor has Yamal shown signs of it negatively affecting his game. He finished second in the Ballon d’Or for 2025 in September, just behind Paris Saint-Germain’s Ousmane Dembele, and has only gone from strength to strength with Barca, scoring 24 goals and providing 18 assists over this past season — his best return — as Hansi Flick’s side retained their Liga title.
Yamal has already wowed football’s most dedicated fans with several incredible individual performances, including at Euro 2024 and in big Champions League games.
Watching his displays with Barca more regularly has been a joy.
He has always been a silky winger, gliding with the ball stuck to his feet from the right flank of the attack, but most crucially, his intelligence and decision-making have now reached a different level.
His football IQ seems to know no bounds. He can read every situation in the game and has added even more end product. It makes it hard to put a ceiling on his potential.
“It was good for me not to win that Ballon d’Or,” Yamal said on his YouTube channel. “It helped me keep growing. It’s possible it was not my time.”
Speaking to DAZN in May, his Spain team-mate Rodri said: “He will surely win the Ballon d’Or one day. He is already a star. You think about everything he has ahead of him and it’s incredible. He is not just the future — he is a reality now, too.”
In a separate interview with Spanish radio station Cadena Ser last week, Rodri also praised Yamal’s attitude and maturity as he recounted an early anecdote from their training base in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
As one of the group’s senior figures, Rodri helped set up a team dinner. Yamal came to him to ask permission not to attend “as he wanted to stay at the hotel and rest to be ready for the World Cup”, Rodri said.
“He is so focused. I see him in perfect form,” the Manchester City midfielder added.
That reflects another change.
During Euro 2024, Yamal was often described by team-mates as a childish but refreshing presence; always keen on messing around, cracking a joke, and having fun. In short, what you expect from a 16-year-old.
Yamal is now notably driven by a broader self-awareness. He knows what he has become, enjoys it and wants to make the best of it, but he is also calmer; still up for a laugh but equally focused on what he has to do in training.
“I see him more as a man now, rather than a kid,” said Spain and Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella last week, speaking on another Spanish radio station, Cadena COPE.
“He has had to deal with certain situations being super young and he’s done that really well. Honestly, I don’t know if I would have been able to cope like he does. When I was his age, I was a nobody playing for Barcelona’s B team — but in my head, I thought I was already a star.
“When all my friends ask me about Lamine Yamal, my reply is always that he’s doing amazing. Taking into account that, at 18, he is one of the most famous people around, that he can’t even go for a walk down the street and how naturally he deals with it, I can only admire him.”
Yamal, who turns 19 on July 13, the day before the World Cup semi-finals, has not played for club or country since suffering a hamstring injury in a 1-0 home win over Celta Vigo on April 22. Spain fans across the country held their breath as he limped off the pitch. There were real fears that it could lead to him missing the World Cup.
The following day, tests showed a muscular tear — fortunately without signs of any tendon damage. He would have missed the tournament with that.
Spain coach Luis de la Fuente included Yamal in the squad he announced on May 25, despite there being a chance of him having to miss their first two games. His recovery process has been extremely carefully managed, and the player did not miss a single session at Barcelona’s training ground.
He’s also been closely monitored by physiotherapist Fernando Galan, who works with Yamal both at Barca and with Spain. Galan is at the national team’s base camp too, assigned to have a special focus on the forward.
That care and dedication — as well as the genetics of a young body — has made for a quick recovery. Yamal is now expected to be available for Monday’s Group H opener against Cape Verde, although Barca would prefer De la Fuente to wait a bit longer before reintroducing him. Yamal’s total desire to make it back in time has played a big part, too. He is expected to start on the bench, though.
Those close to Yamal say he sees the World Cup as the biggest competition in world football — much more than a Champions League or any domestic trophy. Not taking part was simply not an option.
Now, the scene is set for him to make an even bigger splash than he did at the Euros, this time in front of a truly global audience. The World Cup is all about moments like these. Pele, Diego Maradona, Messi, Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe each wrote historic chapters in their football stories at this tournament.
Yamal is Spain’s irreplaceable genius, an exciting attacking threat with no equal, a player De la Fuente has built his team around — which helps explain why they are, for many, favourites to win.
On a personal level, he has already achieved so much in these transformative past two years. If he fulfils expectations this summer, his standing will go fully stratospheric.

Consider this the White House card’s Civil War.
Of all the matchups Bo Nickal could have had at this event, Kyle Daukaus wasn’t the one we expected. Sorry, Colby Covington.
Nickal returned to the win column in devastating fashion when he head-kicked Rodolfo Vieira into the nosebleeds last November. The performance was a swift reminder of how talented the Penn State alum really is, as he continues to expand his MMA toolbox.
Daukaus, on the other hand, has been on a hot streak since he left the UFC following his first failed stint from 2020-2022. The Philadelphian has won six straight, finishing all but one of his opponents in mixed fashion. Daukaus has become more dangerous than ever, providing a tough challenge for Nickal wherever the fight goes.
At its core, this matchup is a case of momentum vs. hype. Nickal’s wrestling will always be a huge X-factor, which has evidently boosted his striking threat as he rounds out his game. Nickal also has a good fight IQ to support it all. Daukaus will need to force mistakes to try and find a finish anywhere the fight goes; otherwise, he’ll be in for a long night.
Pick: Nickal
Garcia gets back to jabbing before landing a body kick. Lopes fires a right straight down the pipe. Garcia works his jab to control the direction of Lopes. That head kick remains something Lopes wants, but can’t find. Lopes lands a nice jab. Garcia returns fire with one. A good inside low kick lands for Garcia. He jabs nicely again. A right hook chin-checks Lopes. Lopes just looks off tonight. He’s had next to no offense in this fight. A clean right hook lands again for Garcia. Lopes grazes with an overhand right. A big one-two lands for Garcia. Garcia gets clipped with a big hook! He’s hurt! Lopes swarms! He catches him again! He follows with bombs and it’s over! Lopes does it! Wow!
Garcia lands an early uppercut to get Lopes’ attention after a head kick attempt. Garcia starts pouring it on early with a nice straight followed by a big body kick. A looping right lands for Garcia before a good jab. Garcia blocks another head kick. Lopes takes a head kick for his trouble, but eats it before trying for another of his own. Garcia is dictating the pace well. He jabs the body. A hard tomahawk-like elbow stings Garcia in the pocket. Garcia starts to seek one-twos. An odd exchange stumbles Garcia, but it may have been more of an off-balance situation. Lopes absorbs a body punch. Lopes stays backed to the cage, allowing for Garcia to rattle off some jabs to great success. A straight left lands clean for Garcia. Clear round for him.
10-9 Garcia.

The last place I expected to hear people talking about the Knicks was the Tony Awards.
Yet there I was, interviewing Daniel Radcliffe on the red carpet and asking him about the energy in New York. Radcliffe, of course, knew I was talking about the Knicks’ playoff run (though maybe I shouldn’t say of course: I later asked Lorne Michaels the same question and it went right over his head).
The last time Radcliffe witnessed a major New York sports team win a championship was when the New York Giants won the Super Bowl in 2012. And he’s not alone — the entire city has been waiting that long. To put that in perspective, that was less than a year after the final “Harry Potter” film was released.
“And I’ve obviously never been in New York for the Knicks getting even close,” Radcliffe continued, “let alone doing this.”
The “obvious” comes from the fact that the Knicks last reached the playoffs 15 months before Radcliffe was cast as The Boy Who Lived. And their last championship? J.K. Rowling was even younger than Radcliffe was when he auditioned for Harry Potter.
The drought only made this run more extraordinary. Every game in the Finals was defined by razor-thin margins. And the 29-point comeback in Game 4 that culminated with OG Anunoby’s thrilling tip-in will go down as, according to one of my closest friends and Yankees broadcaster Emmanuel Berbari, “The top two or three greatest moments in New York sports history.”
During the final game, which we watched with friends at The Rutherford across from Madison Square Garden, I raved to him about how I haven’t been this invested in a sports team since the 2015 Mets (shoutout to DeGrom, Syndergaard and Bartolo effin’ Colon) because of the stakes at hand. And then they won.
What followed, which I’ll chronicle to the best of my ability, is a night I never even imagined I’d witness in New York.
“What happens [if they win]?” Radcliffe questioned T-minus six days until the big win. “Is it going to be like what happened in Philadelphia? Cars on fire and flipping stuff? Let’s see.”
Moments after the Knicks’ win, The Rutherford blasted Frank Sinatra’s “Theme From New York, New York” and “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. The people loved it and sang along. Classic. Nostalgic. Expected. Wouldn’t exactly say that for how the rest of the night ended up.
Immediately, people in the rooftop section of The Rutherford started smashing glasses and beer bottles onto the ground. I was shocked by how calm the security personnel and patrolling NYPD officers remained.
I’ll never forget the expression on one officer’s face. He stood as still as a statue, bug-eyed, watching five twenty-somethings smash glass after glass before softly suggesting: “You don’t have to smash that many.” A bar employee then swept forward like a pawn on a chessboard and started sweeping the rubble.
At this point, I was eager to explore the chaos unfolding in the streets. I grabbed my two friends and we ventured outside the barricades, not realizing there would be no realistic way to return to The Rutherford with the others. Knicks fans were being guided like livestock through Midtown, with police officers lining the streets and metal barricades blocking off entire sections of the neighborhood.
In an effort to “teleport” to a less congested area, we ducked into a subway entrance and cut through Penn Station. The station’s cavernous corridors created the illusion that the crowds weren’t all that bad, but that quickly changed once we tried to get back outside. Nearly every exit was closed, including the grand escalators leading up to Madison Square Garden. Police directed thousands of people toward a single exit, creating a bottleneck unlike anything I’d ever seen in Penn Station in all my life living in New York.
The two friends I was with decided to cut their losses and catch the train back home, even after I was insistent on staying to “witness history.” Suddenly alone, I started questioning my own decision not to head back uptown.
As I shuffled towards the exit, squished like a sardine between thousands of sweaty Knicks fans, the cops had blocked off the final portal to the streets, sending people back the other way and creating a wave of mass confusion.
Cooking in a claustrophobic person’s worst nightmare, I felt a bit of anxiety quell. Looking at the emotionless expressions on the cops’ faces, I started imagining worst-case scenarios. One confrontation. One bad decision. One spark. I could already picture the CNN breaking news alert.
But once I managed to break free from the main current of foot traffic, I forced myself to stop and wait for the exit to reopen. As I stood there, I started noticing the acts of kindness around me: teenagers and twenty-somethings on the verge of panic, being comforted by friends, partners and strangers. Little signs of humanity appeared in every direction, quietly defusing what could have become a disaster instigated by fear.
And once I finally made it out onto the streets, I kept noticing the same thing. Amid the chaos, people were patient with one another. Friendly. Understanding. Bumping into someone wasn’t met with frustration, but with a grin and a comment about the Knicks, as if the entire city had agreed to give each other a pass from the stereotypical crankiness for one single night.
The whole city felt like it was riding on a collective high. Maybe it was all the second-hand smoke, but there was a palpable magic in the air that’s hard to describe without sounding corny. When tens of thousands of people are sharing the same emotion at the same time, it becomes contagious.
As I made my way east, I stumbled into Herald Square: the epicenter of the madness. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Dozens of people hung from scaffolding, scaled stoplights and street signs, and turned every object within reach into their own personal playground. One guy was multiple stories up the side of a ventilation shaft. Another, wearing a plain white T-shirt, sat hunched inside, watching someone climb past his apartment window.
Knicks fans also held impromptu pull-up competitions on pedestrian signs. Some of those perched atop the street poles formed circles with their arms, turning themselves into makeshift basketball hoops while people below launched shots toward them. It took a while, but when someone finally sank one, the crowd erupted.
A pair of men sprinting across the top of the scaffolding unleashed clouds of smoke from fire extinguishers, creating the illusion that the city was on fire. Below them, a man and his girlfriend stomped on the roof of a Hyundai Tucson. Its windshield had been shattered, and every car nearby was coated in a layer of spray paint, dust and fire-extinguisher residue.
Just across the street, fans had claimed an enormous yellow tow truck as their own. They stood atop it, waving flags and chanting into the night. At one point, a glass bottle came flying from above. It sailed over the crowd before shattering on the pavement below, just inches in between a group of people unaware of the situation. For a split second, the celebration froze. Then, in a hivemind-like fashion, dozens of New Yorkers instinctively started shouting at the young guy who threw the bottle.
The culprit — wearing tinted hippie glasses, a white tank top and a flower-print skirt — responded with a sheepish shrug and a smile. Then, almost as quickly as it had begun, the moment passed. No fight. No retaliation. The crowd returned to celebrating. It was a pattern I would witness throughout the night: moments that seemed destined to spiral that were instead absorbed by a city operating on a strange combination of adrenaline, joy and mutual understanding.
What made all of this behavior even more surreal was that it wasn’t taking place unsupervised. A battalion of unarmored NYPD officers stood on the perimeter of Herald Square watching the madness unfold. In the three hours I spent in the streets, the only time I personally witnessed officers intervening was to help vehicles navigate through the crowd.
“Hold on, hold on, hold on,” an officer said to a biker trying to cross the barrier entrance. He pointed toward an approaching vehicle. “You don’t see the car coming through?” Then he smiled, as if letting all the air out of his remarks. “You’ve gotta be careful.”
In my conversations with the officers, who were friendly and talkative but constantly alert, they told me they were enjoying the spectacle and were primarily there to keep people safe.
“What’s going to happen to all these people climbing the stoplights?” I asked one younger officer (who, I must say, had a killer mustache). “Are they going to get arrested?” Under New York law, climbing a traffic-light pole or perching on its crossbars is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both.
The officer smiled. He could tell I wasn’t asking out of mere curiosity.
“It’s funny. This is probably the only night they’d ever get away with this, right?” I asked again.
“You know,” he said, glancing back and forth, “this is your chance.”
So there I was, perched halfway up a street sign, watching tens of thousands of New Yorkers bask in the glory of controlled chaos.
The New York Post published a sensational Instagram graphic this morning highlighting the 63 arrests, four stabbings and one shooting reported across the city after the Knicks won — set against images of fire and smoke that suggested widespread mayhem — but that’s not accurate to what I saw go down.
What I witnessed was a city letting loose after a long-awaited cultural victory. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers pushed the boundaries of acceptable behavior, and the NYPD, recognizing the moment for what it was, focused on guiding the chaos rather than suppressing it.
For years, New York has been portrayed by outsiders as a crime-ridden city in decline. And in the years following George Floyd’s murder and other deeply troubling incidents, many Americans (including myself, admittedly) have come to view police officers through an equally rigid lens.
As I was thinking about this, I walked past a young Black man in street clothes shake hands with an Irish police officer. The two were bantering back and forth with smiles on their faces before continuing on their separate ways.
A few minutes later, I climbed onto the stone wall in Greeley Square and sat beside one of the bronze eagle statues overlooking the crowd. After hours of wandering through the streets, it felt like the perfect place to take one final photo before trekking back up to the Upper East Side.
“Yo, you almost just stepped on my fucking head,” a voice barked from below.
I looked down. A twenty-something dude in a blue Knicks jersey was staring back at me. I apologized. His face softened. “It’s okay.” he said. “Let’s fucking go Knicks. That’s all that matters.”
After a few moments of silence, he looked up again. “It’s a pretty great view, isn’t it?”

The AI agent craze caused a purchasing frenzy as consumers didn’t want to miss out on the chance to be able to run programs like OpenClaw to completely automate their mundane tasks and save time. With Apple’s unified memory architecture, the company is in a unique position to introduce a major selling point that will complement Siri AI, and that’s introducing its own version of OpenClaw, Codex, or Cursor. Currently, there are limitations to these AI agents, which the Cupertino firm can bypass as part of its robust “Services” segment.
Running Apple’s AI agent for an unlimited time could be the company’s most valuable marketing battle cry, but there are still various obstacles in place
While there’s no concrete plan for Apple to bring its AI agent to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, or other platforms, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman believes that this could be the company’s long-term direction. Currently, AI agents are limited in their functionality by the number of requests a user assigns, with the free version offering a certain limit until you’re required to proceed with a subscription plan.
With Apple’s AI agent, there might not be a need for a monthly subscription, as the company could simply bundle it with its monthly Apple One bundle. As exciting as this possibility sounds, there are many variables to discuss, with security among the most crucial.
By default, AI agents like OpenClaw, Codex, and others are required to ask the user’s permission before making any changes to a Windows file system or registry, and most of the time, that access is locked. However, users can simply allow these agents complete access to their entire computers, leaving them at risk of data loss or even theft.
Building massive data centers and powerful chips with sufficient unified memory isn’t even going to be Apple’s biggest headache in bringing AI agents to its platforms, but the security risk that comes along with it is. If the California-based giant is too stringent about user privacy, it might limit the agent’s functionality, leaving the aforementioned options a better alternative to those who don’t mind offering complete access to their hardware.
However, if Apple also introduces this flexibility and a multitude of incidents occur where the agent goes “rogue” with sensitive data and credentials, it’s going to be a PR nightmare for the company. While we strongly side with Gurman on his assumptions regarding Apple’s plans, we believe it’s going to be in a more controlled fashion. As always, the company might be late to the party, but as long as it has a refined product on its hands, that’s what matters.
News Source: Mark Gurman

Suddenly, there’s a “No City Slickers” rule in place for the NBA Finals game 5 … the San Antonio Spurs are yanking tickets away from Knicks fans hoping to watch their team win its first ‘chip in 53 years.
The message is loud and clear on the Ticketmaster page for Spurs tickets … anyone buying tickets for Saturday night’s crucial game will be blocked if ya ain’t from ’round these parts. The actual warning reads, “Sales to this event will be restricted to customers residing within a 150-mile radius of Frost Bank Center” … the Spurs home arena.
Even if you’re an out-of-towner who already has tickets, you’re likely to get screwed, too. The Ticketmaster warning adds, violators of the rule will have their tickets “canceled without notice” … but you will get a refund.
Clearly, the Spurs don’t want their turf taken over by loud and excited New York fans willing to fork out big money to witness the Jalen Brunson, O.G. Anunoby and the rest of the Knicks take home the team’s first NBA Championship title since 1973. The NYers are up 3-1 in the best-of-7 series, so they can wrap things up tomorrow night.
You can see why the Knicks faithful are scrambling for last minute plane tickets, hotels and game tix … which are going for at least $1500 in the nosebleeds, and up to $10k for anything on the floor. Knicks fans have reportedly already snatched up 50% of the game 5 seats.
Ticketmaster says it’s using customers’ credit card billing addresses to spot outsiders. It’s unclear how the Spurs would enforce this on the secondary market, where bummed out Spurs ticketholders might be looking to make some easy money.
One thing’s for sure … Knicks fans are gonna be pissed. We’ve reached out to the Spurs and the NBA, but no word back yet.
The Spurs’ efforts to block fans the way Victor Wembanyama blocks players’ shots comes on the heels of San Antonio losing game 4 in historic fashion. They were up by 29 points before the Knicks pulled off the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history, winning 107-106 … much to the joy of Taylor Swift, Timothee Chalamet, Mariska Hargitay and Spike Lee.