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Published : 20 Jul 2026, 05:09 PM
Forget the final scoreline for a second. The real MVP of Spain's World Cup triumph might just be 3ft tall, wearing a No. 19 jersey two sizes too big, and completely unaware he's famous.
As confetti rained down after Spain's 1-0 win over Argentina at MetLife Stadium on Sunday (Monday Bangladesh time), the cameras kept drifting away from the trophy lift to find Keyne, Lamine Yamal's 3-year-old brother, toddling around the pitch like he owned the place.
He has been hijacking the spotlight all tournament and the final was just his biggest stage yet, according to the Times of India.
His star was born in the Round of 32, when a fan's video of Keyne screaming "Vamos!" mid-celebration after Spain's win over Austria hit X and exploded, racking up more than 32,000 likes, the daily reported.
One clip, and suddenly a toddler had a fanbase. From there, he simply refused to miss a match.
Camera operators started hunting him down on purpose, the paper said, cutting to the stands at the tensest moments knowing exactly what payoff awaited.
For the final, he showed up in full costume: a blue Paw Patrol hat clashing gloriously with his brother's jersey, immortalised by Fox's broadcast cameras.
But the moment everyone remembers came in the quarterfinal against Belgium, when Keyne's face, tongue fully out, mid-wave, took over the stadium's giant screen so completely that it broke Yamal and several Spain teammates' concentration mid-match, sending them into fits of laughter.
That single clip pulled in upwards of 38,000 likes, numbers most influencers would kill for.
After Spain dismantled France in the semis, ESPN's SportsCenter posted a photo of Keyne waving at his brother, and it went viral too, as per the Times of India.
Yamal clapped back on Instagram with a photo carousel, ending on a snapshot of the two brothers and their mother, all smiles, in the stands.
The final delivered one last round of chaos. Cameras caught Keyne swimming in an oversized cap that swallowed half his face, with Yamal hovering protectively behind him.
Elsewhere, he had commandeered a police officer's hat borrowed straight from security personnel and reportedly became locked in a staring contest with a giant inflatable World Cup trophy near the celebration zone.
At one point he was out on the pitch kicking a ball around with other players' kids, with midfielder Mikel Oyarzabal jumping in to join him, proof the entire Spain squad had unofficially adopted him.
Keyne was born in September 2022 to Yamal's mother, Sheila Ebana, following her separation from Yamal's father Mounir Nasraoui, the Times of India said.
This is not his first big stage either, the paper said: he was on the pitch after Spain's UEFA European Championship (Euro) 2024 win, is a regular at FC Barcelona matches, and at the 2024 Ballon d'Or ceremony, played with a Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League ball on the red carpet instead of posing for photographers.
Yamal has spoken about growing up in an apartment where the kitchen and bedroom shared the same room, and has said watching his brother get the carefree childhood he never had is what makes him happiest.
For the rest of the world, Keyne has been the internet's favourite World Cup subplot. For Yamal, he has been the whole point.
