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According to a new report by the Spanish Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia (Oberaxe), the 18-year-old star is frequently targeted with slurs and experienced twice the volume of racist abuse as the second-most targeted player, Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr., with 29%. Other players like Kylian Mbappe, Alejandro Balde, Brahim Diaz or Inaki Williams are also on the list.

A significant spike of abuse occurred on Sept. 22, the day Yamal won his second consecutive Kopa Trophy (for the young player of the year) and was named runner-up for the 2025 Ballon d’Or, after Ousmane Dembele.

Yamal received a large volume of insults aimed at his Moroccan roots, including “Moor” and “MENA”, according to OneFootball.

The report by Oberaxe used an AI-powered system called FARO to detect 33,438 racist or xenophobic posts during the 2024-2025 La Liga season. Of all the racist content reported, only 33% was removed. Facebook removed 62% of the content reported to it, while X removed only 10%.

Oberaxe, which cooperates with La Liga, noted that Yamal’s origins, with his mother from Equatorial Guinea and his father from Morocco, make him an easy target, even though he was born and raised in Spain.

Along with Yamal, other colored players playing in Spain, including Athletic Bilbao’s brothers Inaki and Nico Williams, and Real Madrid’s Vinicius, have also been subjected to verbal abuse on social media. The players have frequently spoken out against racism in Spain.

At the club level, players for Real Madrid (34%) and Barcelona (32%) accounted for over 65% of the abuse. The last season’s El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid in October, 2024, saw a combined 6,530 racist messages, primarily targeting Yamal, Raphinha, Ansu Fati and Vinicius.

“His international career is deliberately overlooked by many,” Javier Goma, philosopher, writer and commentator, told The Country. “Those who do not accept him as one of their own because of hate do not seek accuracy or truth; they seek support in that public release.”

When contacted by The CountryYamal’s representative said the racist comments did not worry his client.

“Yamal is used to hateful speech, to the point of even joking about it himself,” the representative said. “Moreover, he knows how to focus on what is important… and ignore what is not worth paying attention to. Yamal does not get tired and stressed by being discriminated against, and he also never responds by playing the victim.”