Rocafonda dreaming of a World Cup for Spain and hometown hero Lamine Yamal

"In the neighbourhood of Lamine Yamal, we struggle to make ends meet."

The phrase is etched right into the concrete, on the steps running alongside the city pitch where Rocafonda's youth gather every evening. It's a reminder to everyone who comes to take a photo in front of the mural of Lamine Yamal - Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana in full -  which decorates this field with two goals without nets, a surface worn down by endless football games, and fences that almost - but not always - keep the ball from flying out onto the avenue running down the side of the pitch.

Every evening, the ritual is the same: As soon as the sun starts to set, teams rotate with limited time for each, refereeing is handled by the players themselves, and surprisingly, there’s little bad faith. A bit further away, the youngest kids practice by inventing goals right on the fence.

Their ball often ends up on the big kids’ field, and no one says a word. Just like when a passerby crosses the pitch in the middle of a game, pushing a shopping cart to get to their building. The game comes first, but neighbourhood life must go on.

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'A role model to keep from getting lost'

This is where Salim, nine years old, patiently waits his turn to play. Wearing a fake pink Barcelona kit with Lamine Yamal on the back, Salim - who was only six when the local prodigy made his debut for Barcelona - sums it up: "He’s a player who used to come here, who trained, who played with his friends, and who kept learning and getting better every time. And now he’s made it to the top."

Ronnie doesn’t hide his pride at training every evening under the gaze of Lamine Yamal: "We look at the mural every day. It’s an inspiration: seeing him play on our neighbourhood pitches, then in a World Cup final, it means so much to us, it makes us very proud."

Aaron, 10, shyly explains: "He’s the best player in the world. He’s an idol to look up to."

Sitting on the white steps that mark the edge of the pitch, his mother Elisabeth keeps an eye on him, just off work, as she does every evening: "Here, all the kids, and especially many parents of African origin, dream that their children will become like him. (...) Above all, we hope he remains a role model for the future, a figure to keep kids from getting lost, because they want to imitate everything about him. My son wants to have everything he has."

Lamine Yamal does everything he can to maintain, at least symbolically, his connection with Rocafonda, where he and his parents settled after his birth. A 'marginalised and stigmatised' neighbourhood, where more than 11,000 people from 35 different nationalities are packed into five-or-six-story buildings, largely ignored by the authorities.

With every goal, he forms three numbers with his fingers: 3-0-4, a nod to the postal code (08304) of this Mataro neighbourhood, a city of 130,000 north of Barcelona. For this World Cup, he even debuted a headband with 'Rocafonda' written on it.

"He does it for the country, but also for the people from the neighbourhood. He represents us, those of us who are few, and makes us feel important. Now everyone knows the neighbourhood. Before, people said there was a lot of crime here, but now they see the real story; they come to do reports and interviews," says Moha, 14, with surprising maturity.

He may not wear the local icon’s jersey, preferring Neymar at Santos, Lamine Yamal’s idol, but most of the younger kids sport the blue and red Barca shirt with the number 10, which the 19-year-old has inherited this season.

'He did things no one else could do'

It’s a wild journey for Ayoub, 20, just a year younger than Lamine Yamal, with whom he spent countless hours on this sun-baked asphalt: "Whenever he came by on weekends, we always played together. You could already see his quality, there was nothing we could do against him.

"Even as a kid, we knew he’d play for Barca, you could feel it. But we never thought it would happen so fast. He did things no one else could do, it wasn’t normal. There was nothing we could do against him."

He also remembers facing Pau Cubarsi when he played for the Rocafonda club, and was just as amazed: "He was 15, 16, and played like he was 28. That’s something you almost never see."

He hasn’t seen his friend in three years, knowing it’s nearly impossible for someone who’s become a global star to return to his old neighbourhood, where his uncle and grandmother still live.

Today, Ayoub is content to shine under Lamine Yamal’s gaze: "Since they put up this mural, I’ve seen everyone who comes to play football here, or just passes by, take a photo in front of it. Lots of people come on weekends to play a match against the neighbourhood team and leave with their photos."

For him, what Lamine has built goes far beyond trophies: "Having an idol like him is important for the kids growing up here. He’s a clear example of what you can become - a guy from the neighbourhood who became a global star."

In Rocafonda, more than anywhere else in Catalonia, people are passionate about 'Lamine Yamal’s national team,' as the mayor of Mataro jokingly calls it on social media.

Spanish flags hang from windows and balconies, supporting La Roja but also asserting a Spanish identity that some far-right leaders would like to deny in this working-class neighbourhood, which they see as a symbol of the 'great Spanish replacement.' 

"We, those from the neighbourhood who know him, we know he’s always wanted to represent Spain, despite the doubts some people have had about him," Ayoub points out.

'People talk more about Rocafonda than Mataro'

This sense of belonging goes far beyond Rocafonda’s borders. Just a few meters from the pitch, Carolina sips a Fanta in a local bar where older residents gather inside to enjoy the air conditioning.

"Now when we travel, we say we’re from Rocafonda, Lamine Yamal’s neighbourhood, and everyone knows it", she says. "People talk more about Rocafonda than Mataro."

That pride is also felt at the high school, as her husband Xavi, a Latin teacher in Rocafonda, explains: "Often, students come in football shirts. They all come in jerseys, whether it’s Barca or the national team, and 100% of them have Lamine Yamal’s name on the back."

"Especially the white one," he adds, referring to La Roja’s away kit.

But this new spotlight isn’t enough to erase what Rocafonda has lost over the past 20 years.

"It went from a neighbourhood that had everything to one that’s lost a lot of shops, a lot of things," Carolina recalls. Xavi paints a less rosy picture, mentioning gunshots and violence that have affected some parts of the neighbourhood, especially around Pablo Picasso Street, which several residents cite as the most sensitive area.

Locals have organised a petition to demand 'more police presence, more investment' and believe that the popularity brought by Lamine Yamal allows them to 'have more of a voice.'

In Rocafonda, politics is a taboo subject - life is already hard enough without getting involved in what are seen as 'personal' quarrels between politicians or the issue of Catalan independence, which is barely present here.

56% of the local population abstained in the last Catalan parliamentary elections, while overall abstention in Mataro doesn’t exceed 44%.

"People talk a lot about Lamine Yamal, but economically, there haven’t been many visible benefits yet. We haven’t seen any direct investment from him in the Rocafonda club or elsewhere. But maybe that will come," Xavi says.

Licenses too expensive: No car, no lights

Elisabeth, Aaron’s mother, experiences this economic reality firsthand every weekend. She couldn’t re-enrol her son at CF Rocafonda, the neighbourhood club: without a car, she couldn’t manage the trips around the region for weekend matches.

By default, Aaron now plays for his school’s futsal club, where games are only between Mataro clubs and reachable by bus. She also says that at CF Rocafonda, kids are sometimes excluded from training mid-season if their parents haven’t paid the 'cuota,' the fee due between the 1st and 5th of each month.

"I don’t think it’s right, because kids shouldn’t have to worry about their parents’ financial problems. They shouldn’t have to pay the price."

She remembers that as Lamine Yamal’s fame grew, parents in the neighbourhood already feared one thing: "They’re going to raise the license fee again." And that’s exactly what happened.

Elisabeth is also waiting, very concretely, for action from the authorities: "The city hall should give more opportunities to the kids, a real covered pitch, so they can play even when it’s as hot as it is now. Because today, clubs are expensive. Here, sometimes, there isn’t even any light in the evening. You see those floodlights there, but they don’t work."

Elisabeth especially relates to the bond Lamine Yamal has with his own mother.

"As a single mother, I’m very proud that he speaks so highly of his mother," she confides. "His father respects him too, but it’s especially towards his mother that he shows gratitude, for all the efforts she made."

She also understands perfectly the struggle to pay the monthly fee that his mother must have faced, and hopes her story will resonate with those close to him.

She also hopes that one day a Lamine Yamal Campus or a similar initiative will be created in Rocafonda, or even, more modestly, that he’ll fund a bus so kids whose parents don’t have a car can keep playing for the neighbourhood club.

Still, she’s realistic: Lamine 'doesn’t owe anything' to his neighbourhood, he 'isn’t obliged to do anything', and she especially doesn’t want to add to the pressure he already faces every day. For her, football is above all a way to keep Rocafonda’s youth busy, to let them dream of becoming like him, and to keep them away from dangerous temptations.

'If he wins the World Cup, I hope he’ll come back to Rocafonda'

Ayoub, for his part, brings the conversation back to a broader reality than just the football club: that of a neighbourhood where people get up every day to make ends meet.

"It’s a neighborhood at risk of poverty, a barrio where people get up every day to earn their bread. It’s a bit like the suburbs in France," he sums up. "So by becoming famous, by becoming a media figure, Lamine changes the image of the neighbourhood: we go from a marginalised, poor area to the neighbourhood of the best player in the world."

It’s an image transformation, he says, but it doesn’t yet replace the investments Rocafonda needs for its most vulnerable residents.

Still, there’s a shared, almost unanimous hope as Sunday approaches. In Mataro’s Parc Central, a giant screen will be set up to broadcast the final for the whole neighbourhood. 

"I hope Spain will win, that he’ll score a goal for Rocafonda, and celebrate it with the 304 gesture. The atmosphere here around the World Cup is very intense, there’s a lot of pressure," says Mahamadou, who at 15 feels he still has 'hope' but not really 'the chance' to follow a path like the local icon.

And beyond the trophy, there’s a more personal wish on everyone’s lips: to see Lamine Yamal return, even just for a brief visit, to celebrate with his people. The last time Rocafonda saw him in the neighbourhood was for a commercial for the Kings League.

Back then, news of his presence spread like wildfire, leading to an unprecedented security operation. In his absence, his uncle’s bar, "Bar familia LY 304," has become the gathering spot for all the star’s fans in Rocafonda.

The bar is actually closed this week: Abdul, like all the other members of the Nasraoui Ebana family, has headed to the United States to experience the World Cup final.

Some hope that if they win the title, Lamine Yamal might make an appearance in the city on July 25th, when Mataro traditionally kicks off its Festa Major.

"If he wins the World Cup, I hope he’ll come back to Rocafonda, or do something for the neighbourhood," Ayoub hopes.

In the meantime, on the steps of the city pitch with its netless goals, the phrase carved into the concrete is a reminder of a reality that neither a goal in the final nor a hand gesture can erase.

But for one night, at least, in Rocafonda, three fingers, a zero, and four fingers will be enough. 304. Like a promise kept to the neighbourhood he put on the world map.