Ex-Real Madrid keeper Canizares: Barcelona star Yamal facing most difficult year of his career (& life)

Former Real Madrid goalkeeper Santiago Canizares believes Lamine Yamal is facing the most difficult year of his career in 2026.

Canizares says the Barcelona star is facing key decisions which will set the tone of his life on and off the pitch.

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He said on Cadena Cope: “I believe that Lamine Yamal is in the most difficult year of his career, because it’s a year of confirmation.

“He has to confirm everything he did last year; it’s very difficult because he shone at a very high level, and it’s a year of profound changes, on a social level, on an economic level, on a… A new life, indeed.”

Regarding the “new life” that awaits Yamal, the 56-year-old emphasises “the contracts, the advertising… Taking care of a lot of circumstances and things that surround him, events, here, this, that and so on.

“Lamine Yamal is in a year of absolute change and at that age (18 years old) it is for me the most difficult year… the most difficult.

“I’ve seen great players go through a very tough time in that year, where everything is different and where your personal life has changed, because society doesn’t allow you not to change, right? ‘I’m still the same’.

“No, you can’t stay the same; you can’t go have a beer here anymore, or go have a Coca-Cola there, or walk the dog in the park.

“Things have completely changed because you’re a football star and before your banker would call you to say, ‘Hey, maybe you’re overdoing it…’ And now your banker calls you to offer you 13 investment funds that supposedly have fantastic returns. And like that, 1,000 things.”