IT'S the Summer of 2003. Cristiano Ronaldo, who turned 18 a few months ago, is dazzling in a friendly against Man United. Sir Alex Ferguson decides he has seen enough. The club signs the teenager. Portugal, one year from hosting the Euros, have also seen enough. They call him up.
It's the Summer of 2005. Word is growing about one kid in Barcelona. He signs his first senior contract, but the club are still figuring out his pathway from age-group teams to the senior team. Argentina, one year out from the World Cup, call him up for the first time.
It's the Winter of 2016. Kylian Mbappe is making quite the din for Monaco in Ligue Un and the list of interested scouts who turn up to watch him continues to grow. France and PSG come calling in 2017, and he hasn't looked back since.
Lamine Yamal, 18, is set to start for Spain in a World Cup quarterfinal against Belgium on Friday. Days after he had turned 17, he had played a starring role for La Roja in the final of the Euros against England. Even among outliers, he's an outlier. A dot on the corner of a map when plotting all extraordinary talents at his age.
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When the impish Barcelona attacker suffered a hamstring injury in April, it led to a crisis of sorts. Would that be the end of Spain's World Cup? It was absurd to even think about this, but it was also reflective of Yamal's rise from a potentially good player to one of the world's best in just two years. And it also created temporary work opportunities for doctors in Spain. They were invited to talk about Yamal's injury by looking at the way he fell and newspaper columns dissected his hamstring. An entire country was becoming obsessed over a teenager's hamstring. Of course, football has been here before (Wayne Rooney and the metatarsal in 2006 and Neymar and his back in 2014, for example).
All of this was petrol for one argument football had not had to make for over the last 60 years. A teen had never been the world's best player; that particular honour had always been reserved for players well into their 20s. Not anymore. Last year for Barcelona, Yamal registered 24 goals and 18 assists in 43 games en route to helping them win La Liga. He's no longer the sport's future. He's very much its present.
It's why the next week or so gives the sport a possibility that has not existed since Pele dazzled the world with his feet in the 1958 World Cup edition. Since then, nobody as young as managed to own the world's biggest sporting competition.
The 2010 champions have, in their playing XI, a former Ballon d'Or winner (Rodri), a player bound for Real Madrid (Marc Cucurella) and a youngster who wowed the world when he first announced his arrival (Pedri). But Yamal gives them a reference point they just do not have enough of. He gives them that thrilling verticality, that ability to run into space, dribble through a packed defence or cut in from the right and curl one into the opposite corner.
In a team known for its slow, romantic ballads, Yamal is all whiplash and heavy metal.
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Spain’s World Cup campaign began against Cape Verde. After 90 minutes, it was seemingly on life support. The verdict was it was slow, ponderous, possession for the sake of possession and not enough thrust and penetration in the attacking third. Some of these accusations were true; the build-up phase could have been a touch quicker and the Cape Verdean defence wasn't overly troubled as much of the play happened in front of them. So, they were able to defend deep and retain shape.
Yamal, still recovering from the hamstring injury, was brought on in the 71st minute, but he wasn't able to influence the game. Over the last few weeks, he has been used sparingly by coach Luis de la Fuente. Building his load up, day-by-day; they have wanted to keep him fresh for the knockout stage of the competition. Even though he scored against Saudi Arabia on his first World Cup start, they were cautious.
That changed after his contributions against Austria in the Round of 32. He didn't have a goal or an assist but the underlying metrics (six shots, 14 touches in the opposition box and five recoveries were all suggestive of a player approaching his best). Versus Portugal, he played the full 90 and was a constant menace down the right (joint-most shots and touches in the opposition box).
It had been a slow start to his tournament, but he's now raring to go. "For me, Lamine has played one of the most important matches of his life," De la Fuente said after the game. "Beyond whether he was brilliant or not, for me it has been one of the matches that will help him grow the most. When he had the ball, he always created doubt and uncertainty for the opponent. He generated a lot of fear."
That, in essence, is why Spain have hung their hopes and dreams on an 18-year-old coming off a hamstring problem. That capacity to generate fear by just demanding the ball and dribbling at the defence at speed.