Lamine Yamal says he has experienced racism ‘a thousand times’

Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal says he has been subjected to racist abuse “a thousand times”, describing incidents that people may not recognise as racist.

The 19-year-old Spain international spoke about his experiences in an interview with broadcaster Movistar.

“A thousand times. People are indirectly racist towards you, but maybe don't realise it,” Yamal said.

“There are a lot of comments or looks that are racist and they don't even notice.”

Yamal’s comments follow a report from the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia, a government agency, which identified him and Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr as the most frequent targets of online racist abuse in Spain during the final quarter of 2025.

The Barcelona player was also among those targeted by racist abuse during the El Clasico meeting with Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in October 2024.

Yamal said he distinguished between the use of a racial term itself and whether it was intended to cause offence.

“If someone calls me Black, it's not going to bother me at all, ultimately I'm Black, I'm not any other colour,” he added.

“Another thing is whether it's good or bad, whether they're saying it to offend me.”

He also said that racist abuse from supporters would not necessarily lead him to react during a match, even if he knew it was intended as an insult.

“But if I'm playing a match and they paid for a ticket to see me, I'm not going to get angry just because they disrespected me,” Yamal said.