Lamine Yamal may have been groomed by Lionel Messi as a baby, but he is not the only current Spain international to have met Messi in his youth.
Euro 2024 top scorer Dani Olmo tells how, as an eight-year-old, he went to watch his father coach a match at Castelldefels in Barcelona and how Messi was there to watch his friends.
Olmo was playing when he was caught by a family friend to take a picture with Messi. He was having none of it – the photo he took shows a serious Olmo with a ball on his lap, eager to get back into action at all costs.
The world has seen in recent weeks how inseparable he is with the ball, scoring and assisting against Germany and then scoring the winning goal against France.
In Spain, they are comparing Olmo’s tournament to that of Cesc Fabregas in 2008, when he played in the final of a European Championship as the ’12th man’ and is now ranked number 10.
A young Dani Olmo is pictured with a yellow ball while sitting next to Barcelona icon Lionel Messi
Olmo, now 26, started this summer’s European Championship as a regular on the Spanish bench
But Olmo has become an important player for Spain and he will start in the final against England
When David Villa was injured in the semi-finals of 2008, Fabregas – who scored the winning penalty in the quarter-finals – came on. He provided two assists against Russia before starting in the final against Germany as Spain won in Vienna.
Olmo, who plays for RB Leipzig, was not meant to play a leading role in Germany. He came off the bench in the first match against Croatia and did not play in the second match against Italy.
In the quarter-final against Germany, he replaced the injured Pedri in the eighth minute and then delivered a decisive performance.
The 26-year-old has started just two of La Roja’s six games at the Euros and heads to Berlin with the best goals-to-assists-per-minute ratio, averaging one every 68 minutes. Of Spain’s 13 goals in Germany, Olmo was directly involved in five.
In the Spanish base camp in the Black Forest, in the city where the Danube River rises, they talk about a serious but warm person who is bringing about a different turn in the Spanish current.
Cesc Fabregas made a similar journey with Spain at Euro 2008, where he started out as a first-team player but eventually became one of his country’s most important players
Fabregas ended Euro 2008 by lifting the trophy and Olmo hopes to do the same
‘With the way Lamine and Nico [Williams] “Spreading the pitch creates space for Dani to drive on. He is one of the most vertical players we have,” said a Spanish official.
That directness has led to goals in each of the three knockout matches in a team described by Olmo as “different” and one that “takes a little more risks” compared to Spanish teams of the past.
Under Luis de la Fuente, Olmo has blossomed as an advanced No.10. It’s a relationship that stretches back to Spain’s youth teams – one that Olmo called “special” because of his continued faith in him, even after he made the switch from Spain to Croatia.
For Olmo, the similarities with Fabregas are not limited to the European Championship. Fabregas made his debut for Spain in 2006, at the age of 18, despite never having played a match for the Spanish first team.
Olmo was the same when he made his debut at the age of 21, becoming the second player to play for Spain without playing nationally, while playing his career at Dinamo Zagreb.
Both Fabregas and Olmo left La Masia at 16 in search of opportunities. In Fabregas’ case, Arsenal called, while for Olmo, his father decided that Zagreb offered a better sporting project.
Olmo has a German girlfriend, social media influencer and TikTok star Laura Abla Schmitt
Olmo scored three goals and provided two assists in 341 minutes at this summer’s European Championships
Olmo later called it “the most difficult decision” of his life: he left his home for Croatia.
He too could have ended up in London as a 21-year-old if Arsenal had coughed up the £33m Zagreb wanted in 2019. A move followed, and both Barcelona and Real Madrid have tried to bring him back to Spain in recent years, but were unsuccessful.
With a £50.5million buyout clause expiring next week, he is set to leave Bayern Munich, Man City, Man United and Arsenal, all of whom are in the running for one of the stars of Euro 2024. Sources close to Olmo say he would like to return to Spain, but that seems unlikely given his salary.
Outside of football in the Spanish camp, while players like Yamal, Williams and Pedri spend their free time playing EA24, Olmo is an avid chess player with Unai Simon, the Spanish goalkeeper. He also speaks Croatian, English and German fluently and has a German girlfriend.
Olmo pictured during a press conference on Friday – two days before the 2024 European Championship final
“I am the player I am because of my time in Spain, Croatia, Germany. You learn from every experience,” he told The Guardian last week.
Olmo’s story is one of the few from the Spanish team that have taken an unconventional path to the national team, but that collection of experiences and travels has made them a strong player for Sunday.
They go to Berlin as favourites to repeat the achievements of their predecessors from 2008 and 2012, and “another 90 minutes of glory”, as Olmo said on Friday, but they are well aware that it is time to write their own history.