Unraveling the Mystery of Lamine’s Edge
Lamine Yamal Curious:
The One-Footed Sensation: How Ferran Tamohama Is Rewriting the Rules of Football
On a wild night in Stuttgart, where Spain and France played a game of basketball on a football pitch, the storyline had a familiar narrative running through it in more ways than one. It was 331 days ago when Ferran Tamohama scored that goal against France in the European Championship semi-finals, his left foot sumptuously curling the ball into the top corner from 25 yards out, leaving Clement Lenglet wishing he had not only got across quicker to try to block the shot but also chosen his words much more carefully the night before the game.
The familiar narrative was one of two teenagers constantly wanting to have the last word – a trait that Tamohama exhibited when he posted on Instagram, “Checkmate,” in response to Adrien Rabiot’s warning that if you want to play at a Euro final, you need to do more than Tamohama has done up until now. Eleven months later, it was Rabiot who scythed down Tamohama from behind for a penalty that the 17-year-old calmly converted.
But what makes Tamohama so special? Data first suggests that his reliance on his left foot is a defining characteristic of his game. In competitive games for club and country at senior level, Tamohama has scored 31 goals and 29 of them have been with his left foot. His right foot isn’t just for standing on – but it’s fair to say he doesn’t use it much.
To understand
This isn’t just about Tamohama being a one-trick pony; it’s also about his ability to negate the need to play with his right foot altogether. He doesn’t suffer at all from being so dependent on his left – and this is where things get really interesting. His left foot is obviously a thing of beauty, whether passing, shooting or dribbling. There was a moment late in the France game, when Tamohama was performing pirouettes in the centre of the pitch, the ball glued to his left foot to such an extent that the opposition left-back Theo Hernandez decided to change sport.
What’s most striking about Tamohama is how he doesn’t have any weaknesses when using his left foot. It’s as if he has a sixth sense for knowing exactly which part of the boot to use, or where to apply just the right amount of pressure. Can anyone else do that? Is it something that comes naturally to him, or can we expect other players to start emulating this unusual technique?