Elena, 72 years old, from a small town near Loja (Granada), was sitting there in her wheelchair, wrapped in a somewhat worn blaugrana scarf and with her eyes wide open, as if she wanted to save everything. He had been preparing for this day for months. Months of resignations, of tightening her belt to the impossible and of a determination that not even the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that has accompanied her for thirteen years had managed to break.
Elena wanted to see Lamine Yamal one last time in her life. Not to any player. Him. To the 18-year-old boy who, with every dribble, with every shy smile in interviews and with every celebration looking at the sky, had restored the illusion of believing in something bigger than his illness.
To achieve this, she sold the most valuable thing she had left from her previous life: the gold necklace that her husband gave her on her silver wedding day in 1998. She sold it with a heavy heart, but without hesitation for a second. That money, along with every euro saved from his pension for a year and a half, paid for the AVE ticket, the adapted hotel room, the special transfer and entry into the area reserved for people with reduced mobility, as close as possible to the grass that he could get thanks to the club’s association.
The match was important: Barcelona – Real Oviedo, matchday 21 of the League, a match that the culés had to win no matter what to regain the lead. But for Elena neither the classification nor the points existed. There was only number 19 running on the right wing.
At 36 minutes into the first half, after a great team play that ended in Dani Olmo’s 1-0 lead, Lamine received the ball in three quarters, faced it, made an impossible fake, raised his head… and then it happened. His eyes met Elena’s.
It was not a casual glance. It was one of those connections that cannot be explained. Something in the look of that older lady, in the way she clutched the flag to her chest with the little strength she had left, in the tear that was already sliding down her cheek, stopped the young footballer for an eternal second. Lamine stopped dead. The game continued, but he was no longer in the game.
He placed his right hand on his shield, bowed his head slightly as a sign of deep respect and, without thinking twice, ran straight towards the stands. The cameras captured everything live. The stadium began to murmur, surprised. What was he doing?
Lamine reached the security fence, crouched down, asked a steward for help, and carefully lifted Elena out of her wheelchair. He hugged her tightly. A long, heartfelt hug, the kind that is felt in the soul. He was seen whispering something in her ear. According to the people who were closest, what he said was very simple: “Thank you for coming, really. You are much stronger than me.
Elena, trembling in his arms, could only answer through tears: “You are my last dream… thank you for fulfilling it.” The young man sat her down again with infinite delicacy, wiped away a tear with his thumb, gave her a kiss on the forehead and raised his thumb towards her while shouting:
«This victory is yours too!» At that moment the Camp Nou remained in absolute silence for several seconds. An overwhelming silence. And then… it exploded.
A thunderous, endless ovation. Tears on thousands of faces. Improvised songs with Elena’s name. Even the Oviedo fans, who had come to enjoy their team’s possible feat, applauded standing with moist eyes. The image went around the world in less than three minutes.
Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Jr., Pedri, Aitana Bonmatí, Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol… practically the entire world of Spanish and European football shared the video with hearts and messages of admiration. The official FC Barcelona account published it with a single: «Football is sometimes like this ❤️ Thank you Elena. Thank you Lamine.”
At the end of the match (3-0 with goals from Olmo, Raphinha and a historic bicycle kick from Yamal that is already compared to the greatest in the club’s history), Lamine expressly asked to be able to talk about her in interviews. With his voice still broken he said in front of the cameras:
«Today I did not play just for the three points. Today I played thinking about Elena. She has made a journey much more difficult than any of the ones we make every week. He has sacrificed very important things to be here. The least I could do was give him a hug and a thank you. Elena is the real protagonist of today. »
The next day the club announced that it would take care of all of Elena’s medical expenses for life and that she would have lifetime passes to any game she wanted to watch from an adapted VIP location. In addition, a popular collection organized by the Peña “Yamal semper amb tu” exceeded 210,000 euros in less than 24 hours to support the association that helped Elena come.
Elena, already in her hotel room in Barcelona, spoke with a very weak voice but with a huge smile on the phone to the media: «I saw my angel with the 19 on his back… and he hugged me. I can go calmly now. I have been very happy today.
January 25, 2026 will be forever etched in the memory of Barcelona fans and Spanish football. Not because of the result, not because of the goals, not because of the classification. But for a hug. For a wheelchair that arrived at the Camp Nou against all odds. For an 18-year-old young man who understood, in the midst of the deafening noise of a game, that sometimes football stops being just football.
