Three arrested over stabbing of footballer Lamine Yamal’s father

Police have arrested three men who allegedly stabbed the father of the young Spanish football star Lamine Yamal, leaving him seriously injured.
Mounir Nasraoui, 35, was stabbed several times on Wednesday night in a car park in the Rocafonda neighbourhood of Mataro, 19 miles north of Barcelona, according to La Vanguardia newspaper.
He was admitted to Can Ruti hospital in Badalona with two stab wounds to the abdomen. At midnight his progress was reported to be good, and he was said to be out of danger and stable.
Residents of Rocafonda recorded the incident with their mobile phones. According to what Nasraoui told the police officers who intervened, he was calmly walking his dog down the street when three individuals attacked him and threw water at him.
The incident escalated into a fight. Later on in the evening several individuals stabbed Nasraoui “without him having had the chance to defend himself”, the newspaper added.
The Catalan regional police, Mossos d’Esquadra, are investigating the incident and detained three suspects after speaking to several witnesses to the attack.
Yamal turned 17 a day before Spain beat England in the Euro 2024 final in Berlin last month. In the working-class, multi-ethnic Barcelona suburb of Mataro where he grew up, he is the source of great pride.
The Barcelona winger celebrates his goals by gesturing 304 with his fingers, a nod to the 08304 postal code of the Rocafonda neighbourhood, where his father and grandmother live.
“My son is like any other kid. He has fought for a dream and has had the opportunity to achieve it,” Nasraoui told Reuters in an interview last month. Rocafonda is among Mataro’s neighbourhoods with the lowest household income and most residents were born outside the Catalonia region and Spain, primarily in Morocco.
Yamal was born in Spain to a Moroccan father and an Equatoguinean mother, who lives in a nearby town. He joined Barcelona’s academy when he was six and moved to live in the city aged 11, his father has said.