It is a piece of skill Lamine Yamal is making an art form — and yet another reason the 17-year-old is one of the most exciting players in world football.
The Barcelona forward has used the ‘trivela’ — an outside-of-the-boot shot or pass — to provide three of his nine assists in La Liga this season.
His latest came against Mallorca last week and there was one in the Barcelona derby against Espanyol on November 3, but the trivela versus Villarreal in September was a thing of beauty.
Trivela is a Portuguese word, and the story behind the action getting that name remains unclear. In Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language, such strikes are named ‘Tres Dedos’, as they are produced by using the three outer toes of your foot. The prefix ‘tri-’ means three of something.
The most established theory to explain the trivela refers to a physics phenomenon named trivelocidade, as Professor Salvato Trigo, from Fernando Pessoa University in the Portuguese city of Porto, explained in 2018. “Trivela would be a sort of acronym to that word. It is difficult to find any other etymological origin to the word, as it only started to be used in the 20th century and fully related to football,” he wrote.
There is another less accepted but equally fitting story. According to this theory, the word trivela was used in Porto to refer to buckled shoes mainly linked to higher social classes. These buckles, or trivelas, were placed on the outer side of the shoe, so shooting with them helped give the ball spin.
Legendary Brazil left-back Roberto Carlos, former Portugal forward Ricardo Quaresma, Real Madrid’s Luka Modric and the 1970 World Cup-winning Brazilian attacking midfielder Rivellino were masters of the trivela with their free kicks, shots and passes in the past.
Today, it is becoming Yamal’s trademark.
“Lamine has been using this since a very young age,” Jordi Font, who managed Yamal in Barcelona’s under-10s and used to pick him up from his dad’s house in Rocafonda, north of Barcelona, to drive him to games, tells The Athletic.
“I think it comes from the street football he’s grown into. Playing in the futsal pitch of his neighbourhood, where you can use the walls to pass the ball and dribble past players, and being a bit cheeky while playing against older opponents.”
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Albert Puig saw the same two years later as manager of Barca’s under-12s.
“This is not a type of strike that is worked on in La Masia (the club’s famed academy), we did not have instructions to apply it,” Puig tells The Athletic. “I am aware that now there is a rule in Barca’s youth ranks that they want to make kids play at one or two touches at most. This has pros and cons, but Lamine got this touch we are talking about by allowing him to have more time with the ball.
“Back in the day, Lamine was still not doing crosses with it, like he did in Mallorca, because you need to add a layer of strength he did not have yet. But ball-carrying, passing and combining with his team-mates, as well as finishing situations…we have seen plenty of those with Lamine using the outside of his left foot.”
Quaresma was one of the trivela’s main proponents (Getty Images; design by Eamonn Dalton)
Before any game, Yamal likes to go on YouTube and search for videos of different players’ highlights such as Neymar, his favourite player growing up, or another Barca predecessor, Lionel Messi. But the trivela has come more naturally.
All three of his trivela assists this season vouch for that, as they all came in situations where defenders could not expect that pass.
This is the position where he received the ball against Villarreal, when he spotted Raphinha getting ready for a run behind the defensive line.
This is the pass he then made.
Against Espanyol last month, he provided a trivela assist for Dani Olmo as the attacking midfielder crashed into the box.
Then there was his most recent trivela against Mallorca, where his former manager Puig highlights how difficult it was for the defender to predict the pass.
“If you look at his body shape, it does not look like he is going to cut inside his left foot and dribble,” says Puig. “The defender tries to give him space to run towards his right foot, but then he pulls out his trick.”
The teenager’s confidence has grown so much that he is now trying to score with a trivela — and almost managed it against Sevilla in October.
Yamal receives the ball on the left side of the pitch, near the edge of the opposition box, and surprised everyone with what seemed an impossible shot…
… only for goalkeeper Orjan Nyland to produce a save at full stretch.
“Lamine must keep using the trivela because he’s proved it’s effective, it’s far from a luxury touch,” says Font. “A cross like this is extremely useful to send the ball past the first defenders in position to intercept the pass, as the curve makes it tougher. Lamine is going to keep trying new things because his technical skill set allows him to do things others can’t think about.”
Puig agrees: “His creativity, altogether with how his physicality evolves, will keep shaping Lamine as a player.
“That is not a comparison with Messi, because I don’t think it’s any good to make them with Lamine, but if you look at how the Argentinian was when he started at Barca and the player he is now, it is totally different. Messi went from an out-and-out, super-explosive winger who started off on the right-hand side and could not be stopped to a footballer who learnt how to manage his efforts, read the game and roam from a more central position, which gave Barca an incredible weapon.
“We don’t know exactly what player Lamine is going to evolve into, but he has the talent and the intelligence to keep trying new things and make them useful with the best football he can play at every moment.”
Yamal’s trivela assist against Mallorca (Getty Images; design by Eamonn Dalton)
After his latest trivela masterclass against Mallorca, Yamal was interviewed by Catalan television station TV3.
“Is there any way to do those passes you do in video games?,” one journalist asked.
Yamal, an avid gamer, laughed as he replied: “Yes, you can, to be fair. You need to press the L2 button and then pass, go and try it! I think it is a pass that I can do very well, I am confident with it, so I will not stop trying.”
The morning after the game, the city of Barcelona woke up with Yamal’s pass immortalised on its streets.
Local artist Miki Noelle turned a picture of Yamal executing a trivela into a sticker he printed off and glued to a wall in the Gracia district. Noelle has produced various Barca-themed stickers this season, illustrating their best moments so far under new coach Hansi Flick.
The Yamal sticker, topped with the caption “L2 + X”, referring to how he said his pass could be replicated on PlayStation, went viral on social media. Yamal himself spotted it, shared it and changed his Instagram profile picture to it for a week.
It will not be the last time Yamal’s trivelas are venerated in Barcelona.
(Top photo: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)