IShowSpeed meets Barcelona's Lamine Yamal while livestreaming from the 2024 Ballon d'Or ceremony

Popular YouTube streamer Darren Watkins, better known as IShowSpeed, met up with Spanish footballer Lamine Yamal while broadcasting from the 2024 Ballon d'Or Ceremony. The streamer was very excited to talk to the Barcelona winger, who recently made quite a splash in the El Clasico over the weekend.

IShowSpeed even insinuated that he had scouted Lamine Yamal when an employee at a Ballon d'Or event led the streamer toward the young football star. The YouTuber can be heard saying:

"I just want to say what's up to Lamine! Me and him go way back, I scouted him two years ago."

After wading into a crowd of bystanders who had flocked around Lamine Yamal, IShowSpeed dapped up the footballer and greeted him like an old friend, stating how they had talked over text a few years ago:

"Brother! They don't believe me, remember we texted three years ago?"

Yamal smiled after meeting IShowSpeed and confirmed that the two had talked before as the YouTuber continued stating that he had scouted the Spanish football star as they posed for a photo:

"Me and you go way back, bro! Hold on let's take a picture. You are my GOAT, you are my brother!"

Before leaving, IShowSpeed even asked Lamine Yamal to not forget him and wished him luck.

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IShowSpeed's supposed history with Lamine Yamal explored as the two meet at the 2024 Ballon d'Or event

As a football (soccer) fan, IShowSpeed has made a name for himself in the global footballing community. This is the second year in a row that the YouTuber has attended the Ballon d'Or ceremony, where FIFA recognizes the top talents in the beautiful game.

Naturally, the event was full of some very famous footballers, including the 17-year-old Spanish footballer Lamine Yamal who has been turning heads with his performance as a young winger for Barcelona this season. He even broke a 77-year-old record after scoring against Real Madrid on October 28, 2024.

IShowSpeed has been talking about Yamal on his stream for some time. In a clip from a few months ago, the YouTuber claimed that he had known about the potential of the footballer since he was around 14 or 15 years old. Speed even stated that Lamine Yamal had "switched up" on him, stating:

"Lamine switched up on me, bro. I have known this chap since he was around 14 years old, bro. I was around 17 and chat he was 15, I am not even trolling he was 14. Chat, literally I was already, bro he just stopped texting me, bro. I can show you all the messages, bro."

IShowSpeed claimed that he knew Yamal would be a star back then:

"I scouted him, bro. He needed to be playing for my football club. I scouted him, bro. I was like, 'This kid is going to be a star one day.'"

The YouTuber even pulled up a singular text he had sent Lamine Yamal back in 2022 as proof that he knew the footballer from "day one":

"You want me to show you all the messages. I will show you all. bro. I scouted this dude back in 2022, chat. I already knew he was going to be a star one day, bro. But now he is famous. You feel me? Congratulations to my boy Lamine, bro. Back when he was 14, none of you were even talking about him! I am a day one, back when he was 14!"

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In related news, IShowSpeed's 2024 Ballon d'Or stream peaked at over 600K viewers. While viewers and fans have congratulated the streamer on the achievement, the concurrent viewership for the event fell short of his record-breaking Indonesia stream, where the YouTuber reached over a million concurrent viewers.