Al-Ittihad’s sports director, Ramon Planes, believes that there are many Saudi talents who can be the new Lamine Yamal for Saudi football.
Yamal was promoted to Barcelona’s first team at just 16 years old, and then became the star of the Spanish national team and led them to win Euro 2024.
Regarding the possibility of repeating the experience in Saudi Arabia, Planes replied, “Of course, we at Al-Ittihad have promoted 6 players between the ages of 16 and 17 to the first team.”
He added, “There is one player among them that I really like and I think he is capable of playing for the first Saudi national team,” but he did not reveal his name in order not to put pressure on him.
He concluded, “The Saudi player has quality, and with the European element and its experience, his level will rise and improve.”
As for Yamal himself, he said, “I told Laporta (Barcelona president) since I saw Yamal that this boy will be a candidate for the Ballon d’Or in the future.”
It is worth mentioning that Planes worked for a period as the sports director of Barcelona, but since last January he has been working in the same position at Al-Ittihad and recently contributed to the signing of Moussa Diaby and Houssem Aouar.
