The birthday with goal of ending England's party

LINING up in the Euros final will be the best birthday present ever for Spanish wonderkid Lamine Yamal.

- MARTIN FRICKER

The young Barcelona ace turns 17 today and will face England at the 71,000-capacity Olympiastadion in Berlin tomorrow.

He lit up the tournament with a memorable goal in the 2-1 semifinal win over France on Tuesday.

In doing so, he bagged yet another record - the youngest ever player to score at the European Championships, aged 16 years and 362 days old.

He was already the youngest player to feature at a men's Euros, to net for Spain and to debut and score in the Spanish league.

It has been a phenomenal rise to stardom for teenage Yamal, whose full name is Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana. He is the son of a McDonald's worker Yamal's 30 mother from Equatorial Guinea and a father from Morocco.

Yamal was born and raised in Rocafonda, a tough neighbourhood in the town of Mataro, 20 miles from Barcelona.

His trademark celebration forming the numbers 304 with his thumb and fingers is a tribute to the deprived area's 304 postcode.

Despite his family being too poor to own a car or pay for training sessions, Yamal thrived on the tough streets.

He was kicking a ball before he was 12 months old and honed his skills against older boys on the area's concrete courts.