The one opportunity that Barcelona missed with Lamine Yamal

The Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal has become one of the biggest up-and-coming names in football over the last year. Around a year ago, the Spaniard was still a Barcelona Atletic quarry, but in the last twelve months, he has made himself one of the most important players at one of the biggest clubs in Europe, as well as becoming the face of the UEFA EURO 2024 champions.

With him in their squad, the Catalans have a truly priceless asset in their possession, one which is only going to raise his value in the coming years. Thus, in addition to his sporting merits, Yamal will also offer a lot of economic benefits to the Blaugranes.

However, as Diario AS has reported, the Catalans could have made even more money from this prized asset, and they have lost a very good opportunity to do so. The report claims that Barcelona’s stores still do not have their next season’s shirts available for sale, which should have been on display since May in normal conditions.

The conflict between Barcelona and Nike, which has been going on for a long time now, has resulted in these shirts not being available yet in the Catalan club’s stores. The first batch was returned because of an error in the printing of the Spotify logo, and new shirts are expected to arrive this week.

However, the Blaugranes have already lost a significant opportunity with which they could have gained a significant amount of money by putting these shirts on display earlier. A lot of tourists visit Barcelona in summer, and take the club’s shirts as souvenirs, but these customers have been lost this year.

Similarly, with his performances in the UEFA EURO 2024, Lamine Yamal has received a media boost, and a lot of youngsters are opting for his shirt. But as his shirts are not available in Barcelona stores, these youngsters are buying his Spanish national team shirts instead.

This phenomenon also brings notice to how the Spanish national team has more readily made Yamal their poster boy by allowing him greater media exposure than Barcelona.

Barcelona can still benefit from Yamal’s rise this summer, as the Catalans will have a better bargaining position in their negotiations with Nike, but this missed opportunity will surely be haunting the club’s economic department.