Pedri, Perez out of Sunday’s Euro 2024 final
Lamine Yamal’s meteoric rise over the last 12 months has been extraordinary, and it could be capped off on Sunday when Spain contest the Euro 2024 final against either England or The Netherlands.
At 16 years of age (he turns 17 on Saturday), he’s already a world class player, and right now, he’s on course to win Player of the Tournament at the ongoing European Championship, reports football-espana.net.
Barcelona have a gem on their hands, and they know it. Club bosses consider Yamal to be completely untransferable, with no offers being entertained for their prized youngster – that includes world record ones.
According to EFE, Barcelona turned down a bid worth €250 million before the start of Euro 2024. It’s not known who the offer came from, although it’s believed to be from Paris Saint-Germain, who had a €200 million bid also rejected earlier in the year. Ironically, the world record fee also came from a Barcelona player joining PSG, that being Neymar Junior in 2017.
Barcelona may be struggling with serious financial problems, but they will not negotiate for Yamal under any circumstances. He does have a €1 billion release clause, although surely that is not triggered, despite how ridiculously good he is.
Meanwhile, Spain have traveled back to their training base in Donaueschingen following their 2-1 victory over France in the Euro 2024 semi-finals.
They did so with doubts over Alvaro Morata’s fitness, after he limped off the pitch.
In surreal scenes, one of the Spanish security team accidentally slipped and slide-tackled Morata during Spain‘s celebrations after the game. The Atletico Madrid forward was seen limping around after, but Relevo say he is not expected to face any issues being fit for the final. After the incident, the security guard apologised to Morata, and the Spain captain told him that it was only worth a yellow card.
The only two absences expected for the final are Pedri, who has been ruled out for at least a month following an injury against Germany, and Ayoze Perez, who has been out since picking up a muscle issue against Italy in their second game of the group stages.
La Roja will no doubt be grateful for the extra day of rest before the final compared to their opponents, the Netherlands or England, after two exhausting ties against Germany and France.
Last week Nico Williams and Yamal sat out training to manage their workload. Dani Carvajal and Robin Le Normand will be back from suspension and fully rested, but the likes of Fabian Ruiz, Rodri Hernandez, Alvaro Morata and Aymeric Laporte have played the vast majority of minutes and gotten through plenty of work.
