FC Barcelona secured Lamine Yamal's future with a renewal for six seasons, until June 2031. As planned, the player from Mataró signed his contract extension before leaving with the Spanish National Team for the 'final four' of the Nations League and, later, on vacation after his second full season with the first team.
Although everything was signed on Tuesday, Lamine's new contract will come into effect once the youth player turns 18, on July 13, as Spanish regulations do not allow signing contracts of more than three years in duration for underage players. Therefore, in his previous renewal (2023), the youth player only signed until June 2026.
However, there was a striking fact in his most recent renewal. Although the club made the official announcement during the afternoon of Tuesday, sharing an image with Lamine's face and his signature next to the number 2031 and the word 'renewed', there was no photo of the signing of the contract in the Barça offices. The winger also shared the official culé flyer on his social networks.
Barça postpones the official act of Lamine: The reasons will surprise you!
In that sense, the decision to postpone the official photos of Yamal's new contract signing has to do with several reasons. On one hand, waiting for the winger to come of age so that his new link with Barça is official in all respects.
In addition, the club needs to return to the 1:1 rule to be able to update Lamine's professional record, along with his new salary. This will happen in the coming days, once the azulgrana auditor Crowe Spain sends LaLiga the documentation that certifies the construction and operation of the 475 VIP seats of the Spotify Camp Nou whose exploitation rights were sold in December 2024 to two investors from the Middle East.
The player from Rocafonda will initially receive a gross salary of 8 million euros, not counting various bonuses and an ascending fee that will make him, in the medium term, the highest paid footballer in the squad. Meanwhile, his termination clause remains intact at 1,000 'kilos'.
Similarly, another important reason has emerged for Lamine to rule out immortalizing the signing of his renewal on the same Tuesday afternoon. The player from Mataró prioritizes having his full family circle for the act, but his grandmother could not be present this week.
Hence, the player and the culé board prefer to wait until mid-July to take the official photographs, already with Yamal's new shirt and number for the 25/26 season. The winger will wear the '10' from the summer, but Nike will not present the azulgrana kit for the next season until the end of June.
Barça's preseason starts with Lamine Yamal's 18th birthday
The squad will return to work, precisely, on July 13, a day of celebration for the entire club for Lamine Yamal's 18th birthday. After a week and a half of preparation, the team will travel to Asia for a tour in which they will play a match in Japan (Vissel Kobe) and two others to be confirmed in South Korea.
After the first week of August, on the 9th or 10th (probably at Camp Nou), Barça will start the 25/26 season with the Joan Gamper Trophy. LaLiga starts on the weekend of the 15th to the 17th, which means that the club will have a clean month of vacation (from June 10th) and a full month of preseason to start the season physically at full strength.