Published On 9/7/2026
While the details of the confrontation were talking about the clear superiority of the Spanish team by three clean goals over its Austrian counterpart, in a match considered the best for the “Matador” since the start of the current World Cup competitions, the television broadcast lenses suddenly turned from the green rectangle to the stands, to capture a spontaneous scene that received widespread interaction.
The lenses spotted a young child among the cheering Spanish fans, shouting with great enthusiasm the phrase “Famous!” “Let’s go,” he raised his fists toward the sky in celebration of the goal scored by striker Mikel Oyarzabal in the 89th minute of the match.
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The TV director’s shot was not random; The child is none other than “Kane”, the younger brother of Barcelona and Spanish national team star Lamine Gamal, who has become remarkably famous even though he is only three years old.
A blood bond that defies pressure
Baby Ken was born in September 2022, and is the son of Sheila Ebana, Jamal’s mother. Although the two brothers do not share the same father, the relationship between them goes beyond traditional ties, which is what Jamal (18 years old) expressed publicly in the mixed zone after being crowned the best player award in the round of 16 match last Thursday.
Jamal said in his press statements: “I am overwhelmed with strong feelings when I see my little brother so happy, and likewise when I see my mother and my friends living the life they have always dreamed of. My little brother represents everything to me. I am in love with him and I feel completely like he is my son.”
Family ties form a fundamental pillar of Jamal’s sporting identity. Whenever the player was asked about how he managed the pressures resulting from his meteoric leap from school to the ranks of international stardom, he always went back to his first environment and the circumstances of his upbringing. When he signed his new contract with the Catalan club in July 2025, he stipulated that his entire family be present to share that moment with him.
In an interview last week with Spanish radio station Cadena SER, Jamal summarized his understanding of pressure, saying: “My mother gave birth to me when she was sixteen years old, and my father had to struggle daily to secure food, sometimes by collecting waste from the streets to return to us with food to satisfy our needs. This is the real pressure for me, and not what I am facing now in the stadiums.”
Sources close to the player confirm that securing his family’s needs and improving their living conditions was his top priority once he entered the professional world, a context that explains the special place his younger brother occupies in his life.
A digital phenomenon under the Catalan spotlight
Ken has become a constant companion to his older brother. He attends almost all of Barcelona’s matches, including external matches in European competitions. During the Golden Ball Awards ceremony held in the French capital, Paris, last September, the child appeared on the red carpet playing with the Champions League ball, taking souvenir photos alongside Jamal.
The emergence of the young star was not new to followers of the Spanish League; His first prominent public appearance dates back to the celebrations for crowning the European Nations Cup (Euro 2024), when the family took to the field and the child appeared joking with the national team’s stars.
As Jamal’s stock rose, his brother became a phenomenon on social media platforms. He attracts followers through dancing clips on the “Tik Tok” application with his brother, or recordings of them training in the garden of the house. During Barcelona’s La Liga title celebrations last season at Camp Nou, Kane stole the spotlight with video clips showing him dancing at his birthday party, or pronouncing the names of his favorite team players in a childish accent.
When Jamal launched his official YouTube channel last December, showing off his former apartment, he showed pictures of his younger brother, noting that the little one always insisted on playing with the “Caganer” statue – a traditional comic figure famous in Catalan culture associated with birthday celebrations.
There are many shots documenting the child’s connection to the club. From singing the official Barcelona anthem at home, to caressing the club’s giant mascot known as the Cat, as well as appearing to have fun with Athletic Bilbao striker and Jamal’s close friend, Neco Williams, after the two teams faced off in the league.
The World Cup doubles stardom and marketing pressures
But the momentum given by the World Cup remains different from the local scope. The snapshot of Al-Saghir celebrating in the Austria match turned into one of the most widely circulated memes in the digital space in Spain, which required direct interaction from the Spanish national team players.
On the “X” platform, a user commented on the clip published by the “DAZN” television network, expressing his complaint about the presence of “a blonde woman in the front row” who blocked the camera’s view of the child. The response came quickly from the national team striker, Borja Iglesias, who entered the commentary line, explaining: “This blonde woman you are talking about, just gave you a brace in this match,” referring to the mother of the player, Mikel Oyarzabal, as the families of the Spanish national team players sit together in the section designated for them in the stands.
On the commercial side, the child is a mainstay of his mother Sheila Ebana’s account on the Instagram platform, which has more than 700,000 followers. Ken appears regularly in routine publications detailing family life, or in sponsored advertising materials, the latest of which was a promotional clip for a sushi restaurant in the coastal town of Premia de Mar in the Barcelona province.
In this regard, informed sources from Jamal’s surroundings revealed that several companies and brands have already begun communicating with the player’s business management, to discuss the possibility of signing sponsorship contracts and commercial partnerships targeting the child in the future.
As the Spanish national team prepares for its quarter-final match against Belgium next Friday, attention is once again turning to the stands, anticipating the new appearance of the little boy, who has become part of the human scene of his older brother’s rise.
