The generation gap on Spain’s right flank has just grown bigger. Lamine Yamal has spent the tournament passing his school exams and footballing tests, operating in front of a man twice his age, in Dani Carvajal. Yet the six-time Champions League winner was suspended for the Euro 2024 semi-final even before he brought his quarter-final to a slightly premature end, rugby tackling Jamal Musiala to collect his second yellow card deep into extra time.
And so the reserve right-back, who will presumably be parachuted in to face France, whose role will involve racing Kylian Mbappe, is a player who had won the Uefa Cup twice before Yamal was born. One Jesus turned water into wine. The temptation is to think that another may need a still greater miracle to outsprint Mbappe. Jesus Navas, after all, is closer in age to perennial early 90s Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain than he is to Yamal.
But, 21 seasons into his senior career, Navas has a certain timelessness. There are few 38-year-olds whose attributes begin with speed, but his arguably do. He has retained a slim physique that suggests he has zero per cent body fat. As times have changed, Navas hasn’t. He has moved from right wing to rightback yet remains essentially the same.
He is a man who has spent two decades running quickly in straight lines up and down the right flank (which, actually, could serve as excellent preparation for halting Mbappe). Shifting him into defence – like many things, a move Pep Guardiola introduced – may have extended Navas’s career.
This story is from the July 09, 2024 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the July 09, 2024 edition of The Independent.
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