Hours before his son stepped on stage at the London Palladium on Monday, Mounir Nasraoui was facing a Civil Guard patrol at Barcelona-El Prat airport, accused of spitting at a cafeteria worker in a dispute over where he had hung his jacket.

By the time Lamine Yamal was named third in the men’s 2026 Ballon d’Or that night, behind winner Harry Kane and runner-up Kylian Mbappé, the story of his father’s departure from Spain was already circulating in Catalan newsrooms. The 19-year-old did pick up the Kopa Trophy for the best under-21 player, his third in a row.

Yamal’s own response landed on Instagram less than 24 hours later.

“IT WILL COME, good things take time, I trust the path I’m building. Without a hurry, with excitement and with tranquility that someday my time will come,” he wrote.

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He thanked the voters and said his focus was back on helping Barcelona win.

What Crónica Global says happened at El Prat

The scene described by Catalan outlet Crónica Global is a long way from the composure of that post. Nasraoui had left his jacket in a restricted area of a cafeteria in the departure lounge, the paper reported, and a waitress asked him to move it. Instead of complying, witnesses told the outlet, he grew defiant and the argument escalated quickly.

Nasraoui is alleged to have spat in the server’s face. A bystander who stepped in to defend her was then struck, according to those witnesses, and Nasraoui tried to attack him with a chair. A Civil Guard patrol was dispatched to the terminal, but he was eventually allowed to board his flight to London without further issues.

Not the first time Nasraoui has made the front page

It is not the first high-profile incident involving Yamal’s father. In August 2024, Nasraoui was stabbed several times in a car park in the Rocafonda neighbourhood of Mataró, the Catalan town where Yamal grew up. He was hospitalised but later discharged, and three men were arrested on charges of attempted murder, with reports linking the attack to a prior altercation.

Read also: Thierry Henry breaks silence after Lamine Yamal Ballon d’Or controversy

Kane’s win made him the first Englishman to lift the Ballon d’Or since Michael Owen in 2001.

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