Euro 2024: Why Lamine Yamal cannot play full 90-minutes in Germany

Germany labour law prevents teenagers from working beyond 8 p.m.

Despite all his accomplishments, Coach Luis de la Fuente has struggled to play Lamine Yamal for 90 minutes in the European Championship. Why? Since Germany, the country hosting Euro 2024, forbids it.

German labour law states that children are not permitted to work past 8 p.m. Even for athletes, who have some downtime, the deadline is at 11 p.m. Many of Spain’s matches thus far, including the semi-final versus France, started after 9 p.m.

German time, even though their quarterfinal matchup with Germany began at 6 p.m. The Yamal would have been forced to work into 11 p.m. due to the 90 minutes of standard time, injury time in each half, 15 minutes of break, and post-match comments.

The 16-year-old Barcelona star, Lamine Yamal, has captured the attention of the football world. Everything he does seems to either break or become a record. At 16 years and 338 days, Yamal became the youngest player to ever compete in a European Championship when he took the pitch for Spain against Croatia.

Shortly after, despite not scoring in the match, he broke another record by setting up Dani Carvajal for a goal in Spain’s 3-0 victory over Croatia. He was the youngest player to assist in a European Championship.

He eclipsed the previous record held by Switzerland’s Johan Vonlanthen, who also scored against France in 2004 at the age of 18 years and 141 days, at 16 years and 362 days. Spain advanced to the final by ultimately defeating France 2-1. The Spanish coach, Luis de la Fuente, called Yamal’s goal “a touch of genius” and praised it.

In the semifinal, Kylian Mbappe’s cross set up Randal Kolo Muani’s goal for France in the eighth minute, giving them an early lead over Spain. When Yamal deftly sidestepped the French defence to score the equaliser, Spain was behind.

In the twenty-first minute of the game, Yamal scored, making him the youngest player to score in the history of the European Championship.

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