Sid Lowe

And so he's got this pressure of being the one that everybody loves, that everyone's looking up to, and everyone is putting pressure on to perform.

But then something else happens.

Of course, he goes back and starts playing club football.

Now, what does that do?

As you know, Dan, the way the divide is in Spain, it splits a little bit, that sense of everyone being on his side.

And now, of course, you've got a big chunk of the country

kind of deciding they're going to dislike him, deciding there are certain things about what he does that irritate them, deciding that this is now back on the agenda.

So that agenda, which initially is full of pressure, but is largely positive, then has that negative side to it as well.

Now, we saw this very clearly, didn't we, before the Clásico and during the Clásico and after the Clásico back in October, when Lamín Yamal had made a couple of slightly ill-advised comments and he'd been trying to joke about the idea that Real Madrid are always cheating, they're always stealing off you, you know, we'd love to give some back to them.

And of course, that turned people against him.

And so you're seeing, I think, the weight of pressure, the degree of exposure, as you say, that sense of it being 24-7, but also the shifting focus of that pressure.

So you've got a pressure, which is for him to perform and to be the golden boy and to live up to everyone's expectations.

And then the pressure that says, actually, I've now got people who are sort of looking for me to fail, are sort of looking to have a go at me, are sort of looking to not like me, even if not at a conscious level, at some subconscious level.

And, you know, I can't stand here and tell you what that's like.

I can't even really begin to imagine what it's like, but it must be pretty hard at times.

No, absolutely.

I mean, look, as well, and this feeds into this.

So earlier in the season, there was a period when Luminia Mahal was celebrating his goals by placing a crown onto his head.

And I remember kind of thinking about that phrase, heavy is the head that wears the crown.

But it felt like Luminia Mahal didn't mind that he wanted that pressure because he was playing so well, because he knew he was so good.