He has starred in a summer of extra -sports headlines, from the promenade for Monaco with the party of. A little luxury and excess should not be new, especially in athletes, but something of “while winning, no one can tell me anything” has nervous the hobby just in time to see him sunbathing with Neymar Jr. Yamal may be a paradigm shift for the fans of the, but it can also explain a movement in the cultural pendulum. The way young people see success changes, they leave the obsession with sacrifice to give way to the game. They embrace the risk and seek security that does not depend on the paths that have marked them: studies, work, institutions. Money is not a taboo, but not an ennObility goal, but the means of being independent of the system that has drowned its predecessors. What does it dream of?
The journalist believes that a revolution like this, the Barça player had not seen him since, but he does not end up being the same: “Yamal can collide because, because of being from here and having trained in the farmhouse, they are more politically correct values, such as they do find in Cubarsí.” And no matter how much Yamal’s attitude does not fit in with the idea of discreet and panic Catalan or Coldplay’s nostalgic, what is clear is that it has become the undisputed idol of the youngest Catalans.
Albert Blaya, who prepares a book on the boom lamine, considers that there is a generational cut in the player’s attitude: “Lamine is much closer to a movie or music star than a football star.” Not only do players look in the field, but there is access to a much more detailed image of their lives thanks to social media. Today the players can show themselves as much as they want, and Yamal wants. “They do not think of a culinary, Catalan or Spanish community, but in the whole world,” says Besa.
Millennial players were the first to teach Christmas trees and family prints on Instagram. Or even in television realities, as in the case of, to whom we from time to time we see the head – and the yacht – in the series I am Georgina. But Besa finds that there is a differential fact between the star of Cristiano and Yamal: “ Cristiano had a very marked rival: Messi. He promoted a image of discipline, of taking care of himself, gym, not to go out. All to compete. Yamal is competitive, but he is also very virtuous, ” says Besa. When Cristiano uploads a photo of his abs on a private beach, he does it to say that all this, body and fortune, has won. Blaya points out that this virtuosity of Yamal, the attitude of play in and out of the field, is the claim for Z and Alpha generations: “ They have been re -enlisted in football with Lamine. Barça today is a very attractive team for how they play, how they behave, the attitude to networks, self -referentiality and quarrels … transcends what is happening in the field and connecting very much with young people. ” The type of game changes, and this changes the way you want to explain. Or, since the way they are told changes, they rethink the rules of the game.
As long as they win no one can tell them anything
While parents and aunts blow through Yamal, luxury images are increasingly occupying spaces in the cultural imaginary. Today, networks are full of content that speaks of money more and more literally, without the meritocratic justification or the forced humility of other generations. About those who have, those who are done and how to get more: a boy with a cellphone and a microphone who stops people on the street to ask them what savings they have. Another who calls on young women to pay a pretender to go out with them. There are also those who ask the code in code: “What perfume do you carry today?”, “Would you teach us your flat?”, “How many jobs do you have and what are they?”
However, has there been such a great break, with respect to other generations? For the millennials, the speech focused on comparing parents and self -exploitation. From them we draw figures such as the Girlboss, the CEO of capitalist feminism, or the performative precariousness, when the millennial identity had been so linked to the plain vindication that there was no worse scandal that indicates their privileges: “ Your parents are middle-class ”, etziba Rachel Sennott, the wedding of the film, Bodies. To the essay Don’t be yourself . With a greater flexibility. “
The context of crisis and precariousness define both the millennial generation and the Z. But while the first crisis of 2008 hits them when they enter the labor world, the generation Z la voices through the content that follows in the networks, and perhaps here the change of perceiving the work as a symbol of status, until self -exploitation, versus self -sufficiency and the constant search for alternatives would be explained. Janira Planes, brand strategist And online trend analyst, he points out that if there is a difference between millennials and gene generation, it is the passage of the Hustle Culture of the Millennials – linking work and monetizing each aspect of life – to what some call Z softness: “ The key is the agency, freedom.The generation Z is attracted to the security image that projects the world of finance, and seeks the world of finance, It depends financially on a world of work that perceives unstable and out of reach, “says Planes. According to the Global Retail Investor Outlook of 2024, 30% of the Z generation has invested for the first time coinciding with their passage through the university or the years after it. In the same age range, there were only 15% of the millennial generation, 9% of the X generation and 6% of the baby boomers. Cubarsí himself recently explained in an interview that he wants to study business to learn how to invest money.
The anguish for looking for ways to get rich without depending on the system also has a darker face. According to a report by the Directorate General of Game Organization (DGOJ) of 2023, the number of young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who bet online has skyrocketed by 41% from the pandemic. The age groups between the ages of 18 and 25 and 26 and 35 lead the activity. In 2024, the number of active players reached two million, 21.7% more than the previous year. This speculative drive is found throughout the cultural Zeitgeist: one of the trends of summer has been the collectible dolls, which are precisely bought in a surprise box. Young people from around the world have recorded opening the package to react live, and the rare most rare models resell on hundreds of dollars. The same dynamic is given with Pokemon Collectable Letters: Surprise packages, recording of the opening, auctions reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I do dream of labour
Interest in money and ways of doing so has also permeated fiction. The movie Materialistsby Celine Song, plays in a very explicit way: the protagonist has to choose between a rich man who knows and. Apart from the message he manages to convey, this August the film was once again a debate after the director answering a user who labeled it “propaganda in favor of Xicots Pelacanyes”. In a viral cut, Song assured that he wanted to question the way capitalism – and materialism – had seized people to romantic relationships.
The approach is more than usual in the gender of the Romcom, but the referents he has Materialists They are current to the point of parody, extremely literal: the mantra that the protagonist repeats throughout the film exactly reproduces the song popularized by Girl where Couch on the Tiktok platform: “I am looking for a man who works in finance, of a ninety meter, investor”. Spaces that were previously labeled grays or bored today, they are attractive today. Twenty years ago, an artist with Hobbies the skateboard and a rock band would have been the romantic interest of all the protagonist. Today, any of these words is considered a red flag to dating apps. “The world of finance breaks aesthetically with previous trends. It is associated with economic security, but also a certain mystique: it has its own ritual and jargon,” says Planes.
On television is also in love: the acclaimed series and the successor Industrywhere a group of young people enter the world of finance; Severancethe surprise of this 2025, which plays with a stethized image of the office world; The Paperrevival of The Office. Even explores mourning and vocation, yes, but it has constant background the economic viability of the business. Not even to get out of the working day with three hours of thinking of money.
Perhaps the most obvious fixation is seen in the world of fast fashion. In recent years, Z -generation networks have popularized trends focused on the wealth imaginary, than the brands of fast fashion han co -opted sense problem: quiet luxury or silent luxury, old money or rich in lineage, mob wife Or wife of the Mafia, and even the most recent Office Siren, mimicizing the uniform of a boring and stable job. The historian Rita Rakosnik, who has just published the collection (Ela Geminada, 2025), finds that, more than a class signal, all this should be considered a costume, because it is an imagined luxury, which does not coincide with the 1%codes. It is another bet of the generation Z.
Leisure and business
If there has been a change in Lamine Yamal versus Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, there are those who also point to the passage of Rafa Nadal to Alcaraz, or even in the stars of the pop: this mix of work and recreation. Madison Huizinga, a specialist in digital strategy, sees an example of this contemporary aspirational in the Dua Lipa singer. In its networks there is one and luxury bars, far from the communication focused on tours and promotion of artists such as Lady Gaga or Ariana Grande. “ The Dua Lipa brand has nothing to do with its capacity on stage, ” says Huizinga, “ it is an image of abundance, which represents equal parts Work and leisure: holidays, vocation and some business adventure of IT Girl of capitalism, ” as Service95, the digital magazine founded by the singer in 2022 that has just signed exclusivity with Spotify. The image that Dua Lipa projects on the networks generates interest in her voice as a prescriber of books and restaurants, and at the same time, her popularity as a prescriber makes us think that her work, her records and tours are nothing more than a very solvent hobby.
He cute game Of the generation Z – you will forgive me – not only want to score goals, but also that they are fun and amazing, but, above all, in their terms. Lamine Yamal breaks with the narrative of the effort and the values of humility of recent decades, and that is why it resonates with a generation marked by the crisis and the distrust of the system, but in no case defeated.
