Spain's Lamine Yamal and France's Kylian Mbappé face off Tuesday night in the World Cup semifinal in Dallas, reuniting a rivalry that once seemed settled in Spain's favor but has flipped dramatically over the course of this tournament, according to a Kan News opinion piece by Amit Levintal.
Two years ago, at just 16, Yamal became the youngest goalscorer in a major tournament final when he scored what Kan described as the prettiest goal of Euro 2024, helping eliminate Mbappé's France in the semifinal en route to the title. Mbappé, by contrast, managed only a single penalty goal across five games that tournament, and many saw Yamal's rise as the future overtaking the present.
This World Cup has reversed the script entirely. Mbappé has been directly involved in 11 of France's 16 goals through six matches on the way to the semifinal, becoming, according to Kan, the first player in history to be directly involved in at least 10 goals across two separate World Cups. Yamal, who arrived at the tournament still not fully fit, has managed just one goal and no assists in six matches, a quiet campaign in what Kan called a tournament of superstars, alongside Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane, and Jude Bellingham.
Levintal frames the matchup as built for rivalry on nearly every level: club allegiance, with Mbappé the headline star at Real Madrid against Yamal's Barcelona; commercial branding, with Yamal as the face of adidas and Mbappé long tied to Nike; and generational identity, with both players carrying strong African roots and working-class upbringings in immigrant suburbs outside their national capitals, Mbappé in Bondy near Paris and Yamal in Rocafonda near Barcelona.
Levintal also traced Yamal's turbulent run over the past year, from a widely criticized 18th birthday party that drew police scrutiny, to a Clásico defeat against Real Madrid that briefly grounded him, to a Barcelona championship parade where he waved a Palestinian flag, drawing criticism from his own coach, Hansi Flick. At this tournament, Yamal wore a headband reading "Yamal Ego" during the knockout match against Austria, a marketing move Kan read as a direct response to critics who accuse him of being driven by arrogance rather than performance.
Ahead of Tuesday's match, Yamal doubled down on that swagger, telling reporters, "We knocked them out of Euro 2024," while insisting Spain and France are the tournament's two best teams and that France, if anyone, should fear Spain.
