Barcelona star Lamine Yamal sees Neymar as his idol and wants to watch him play in the World Cup for Brazil.By The Associated PressPublished On 14 Apr 202614 Apr 2026Lamine Yamal is looking to LeBron James for some inspiration as he tries to lead Barcelona to a Champions League comeback.Barcelona visit Spanish rivals Atletico Madrid on Tuesday, needing to reverse a 2-0 loss from the first leg of the quarterfinals at home last week.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listYamal changed his Instagram profile image to a photo of James embracing the NBA trophy following the Cleveland Cavaliers’ win over the Golden State Warriors in 2016. Cleveland trailed 3-1 in that series before winning the title.“He’s one of the figures who can inspire me for this match,” the 18-year-old Yamal said in a news conference on Monday. “I’ll think about how he did it, and hopefully it works out the same for me.”Yamal also talked about another one of his idols, Neymar, who led Barcelona to the historic comeback over Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 of the 2017 Champions League. Barcelona won the second leg 6-1 at home after losing 4-0 in France.“I’ve watched [the 6-1 match] several times, and I watched it live as well,” Yamal said. “Neymar is a player who was very important for me during my childhood. He’s my idol, and I’ll always be grateful to him for everything he’s given to football.”Yamal said he hoped the 34-year-old Neymar would get in Brazil’s World Cup squad. The striker is playing for Brazilian club Santos and was not included by coach Carlo Ancelotti in the most recent Brazil squad for warm-up matches.“He inspires everyone,” Yamal said of Neymar. “He’s the type of player that you’ll pay a ticket to watch him play, the type of player you’ …
