Discovered on a beach, a Madrid Barça fan and friend of Lamine: this is Vicky López, Spain's new star.

She wears the number 19 on her back and has revealed her overwhelming personality in her Euro debut. Spain reaching the Euro final will be her best birthday present. Don't think we're talking about Lamine Yamal , it's Vicky López (Madrid, 1996). With her Barça teammate and friend, she shares a number, precocity, and a penchant for making mischief: it's no different from dribbling past a star to setting off a firecracker in the schoolyard, much to her father's chagrin. "I have a very good relationship with Lamine. I tell him he's crazy," admits the player, whom Alexia Putellas congratulated after the thrashing of Portugal, "for always making the best decision, which is the hardest part."

It was only ten years ago that Vicky came to football for a summer holiday in Benidorm . She had tried futsal at the age of six at the Torrebilano school in Ensanche de Vallecas , first in a mixed team and then with 10-year-old girls. Then she joined Sport Villa de Vallecas , where she barely played 7-a-side football for half a season "because neither my brother nor I were doing well in our studies and my father grounded us from football ," the footballer explained a year ago, when Montse Tomé called her up for the first time.

That summer, she went on vacation to the family home on the Costa Blanca, where she spent time playing with her cousins ​​on the beach. Vicky, brazenly, spotted some girls wearing Rayo Vallecano jerseys, which she was already eying for their women's team. They were Alba Mellado and Paola Ulloa, players and coaches for Madrid CFF , one of the few independent clubs left in the Liga F. They won the title through small matches and games in the sea with inflatables. When the vacation was over, Vicky told her father she wanted to sign with Madrid CFF.

He played in a mixed team from the junior level to the junior level, with an age limit of 14. During that time, Vicky had to deal with the death of his mother , Joy Felix, from a brain tumor at the age of 43 at the age of 11. He always dedicates his goals to her, "because she watches over me from heaven," he said in Bern. There were many dedications because his goals, sometimes driven from the edge of his own box, were astonishing.

Precocity and Golden Girl

In 2022, at the age of 15, María Pry , now the RFEF's new national team sports coordinator, gave her her debut in the then Iberdrola League. She played with the reserve team, with whom she scored 18 goals, and then Barça arrived, playing with Ballon d'Ors and making her Champions League debut, taking over from Ansu Fati as the youngest Barça player to make her debut. It was against Rosengard at the Camp Nou and she was 16. "I wasn't that far from recess," she confessed at the time. Then came the Golden Girl , the U-21 Ballon d'Or, a contract until 2028 that has allowed her to buy an apartment in Barcelona - "three years ago I was paying to play," she admitted to Broncano in La Revuelta in February - and the European Championship.

With Spain, she has been an Under-17 World Cup champion and tournament MVP, and has seen two Under-17 European Championships slip away from her. Because she has always played beyond her years. While her close friend at Madrid CFF, Cristina Librán, is the captain of the Under-19 team, she has scored two goals in her first two starts under Tomé.

Against Portugal, statistics show she had 90% passing accuracy in the 81 minutes she played. She scored a goal, making her the youngest Spaniard to score in a European Championship, but records no longer fit her profile.

Of course, the locker room hasn't let him take over the speaker system yet. He loves trap and dembow, a Dominican derivation of reggaeton and dancehall , they say. " If I play it, they'll drill my head in . But against Japan, I played Tacata and scored, and Patri played it again to cheer me up against Portugal," he admitted in the locker room tunnel. It's a lost battle; it's only a matter of time before he takes over the playlist.