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The stadium erupted the instant that teenage prodigy set foot on the hallowed turf — and within ten minutes, the world understood exactly why! At 11:17 in Atlanta, a full 43 minutes before the opening whistle, the giant 360-degree screen captured Lamine Yamal chewing gum and grinning, utterly oblivious to the thunderous ovation cascading from every corner of the arena. That infectious joy? It would soon transform into something far more explosive. Less than an hour later, the boy wonder was wheeling away in celebration, having etched his name into FIFA World Cup 2026™ folklore with a maiden strike on his very first start. The sheer speed of the moment was staggering — a mere 598 seconds were all Yamal needed to find the net, having accumulated only 35 minutes of tournament action beforehand, 25 of those against Cabo Verde and the opening ten versus Saudi Arabia. His mere existence on the pitch sent shockwaves through both camps: exhilaration flooding through Luis de la Fuente's Spain, while Saudi Arabia scrambled to assign extra bodies to shadow La Roja's electrifying number 19. The significance of the strike reverberated far beyond that evening in Atlanta — Yamal had officially become the eighth-youngest goalscorer in the entire history of the FIFA World Cup. "It's very special. I've always dreamed of playing at a World Cup, and scoring in my first start is a dream come true," the teenager beamed afterwards. "I was watching the last World Cup from school." De la Fuente, brimming with paternal pride, explained the decision to withdraw his jewel at half-time: with a comfortable cushion already established, preservation trumped ambition. Alex Baena perhaps captured it best when he declared that having Lamine on the pitch, whether for five minutes or the full ninety, is an extraordinary sensation that lifts every single teammate around him. The spark had been lit — and the whole world was watching it burn bright.
