Yannick Carrasco, in the name of the mother against Portugal

Suddenly in 2015 Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco was renamed Yannick Carrasco, just plain. A few months before arriving at Atlético, the now mattress footballer erased in this way one of the few Portuguese vestiges that remained in his life, his father's surname. A father who abandoned them when Yannick was barely three years old and his mother, the daughter of Spaniards, was already raising two children alone. “I did not expect it. Erasing the last name of his father is the best gift he has ever had”, The rojiblanco's mother, Carmen Carrasco, who is also the daughter of Spanish parents, tells Het Nieuwsblad.

“The Portuguese Football Federation tried to recruit me when I was young, but I always wanted to play for Belgium. I am one hundred percent Belgian and I want to beat all the countries and win the European Championship. I don't feel Portuguese “, Carrasco himself confirms, who accumulates 48 caps (6 goals) with the Red Devils and whom Roberto Martínez used as a starter in the first two games of the championship.

There was no work in Spain during the 1950s and grandfather Juan left with his wife to work in the Belgian mines. Installed in Brussels they had a daughter, Carmen, who fell in love with a Portuguese. Two boys were born in 14 months: first Yannick, then Mylan. “I raised my children alone,” says Carmen. “With the help of my parents. What is left of his father? Nothing. At best, Yannick took away his football genes. 30 years ago, my ex played at Auderghem, regional. It has never reached the level of my children. “

“Yannick wants nothing to do with him. He is his mother's and very close to his grandparents. When he went to Atlético for the second time, my parents moved from Belgium to Madrid. They are close to Yannick and my son likes that. My father Juan has also done everything possible for his career. I accompanied him during his training sessions, “continues Carmen.

Carrasco's Spanish blood will boil more than Portuguese this Sunday. Especially since the match is held in Seville, a city in which Carmen retains family roots: “My father was from Córdoba, my mother from Seville. In the city I still have aunts, uncles and cousins. They will go to cheer on Yannick. I too would have liked to attend the game, but since I had a minor operation I can't. I'll watch it on television. “

“I still have family in Seville, but my close relatives are in Belgium. A match like this in Spain against Portugal it is special in itself, but not because of my private life. Because I repeat: I don't feel Portuguese either “, Yannick himself confirms that, obviously, on Sunday he will not have a broken heart.