“Why post lies?”: Internet reacts to claim Lamine Yamal rejected shaking Trump’s hand during World Cup medal ceremony

Lamine Yamal has found himself at the center of an online debate, after a video circulated on social media claiming the nineteen-year-old Spanish footballer refused to shake hands with President Donald Trump during the World Cup medal ceremony. The clip, which spread quickly across X, suggested that Yamal was eager to move on as fast as possible from the eighty-year-old US leader, following Spain's triumph over Argentina on Sunday.

Users on X were quick to push back on the claim. As per the responses shared on the platform, many pointed out that Yamal did in fact shake hands with Trump during the on-stage presentation.

"Why post lies? Millions of people watched that and that did not happen," shared one user.

"I watched each interaction with Trump during the award presentation and that did not happen. This is nonsense AI," shared another user.

Not everyone agreed, though. Some users chose to take the video at face value, with one writing,

"Bravo! Lamine Yamal you speak for Humanity and not the Epstein Class."

Others landed somewhere in the middle, acknowledging that a handshake did take place but describing it as a reluctant one.

Lamine Yamal on integration, identity and what soccer means for Spain:

Aside from the viral video debate, Lamine Yamal has also found himself at the heart of a much larger national conversation. As per a report shared by The New York Times on July 18, 2026, Yamal, whose full name is Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana, has become a focal point in Spain's ongoing debate about identity, immigration and what it truly means to be Spanish.

This past week, Yamal addressed the topic directly at a news briefing, sharing that the ultimate purpose of soccer was to "bring people together," and that Spain, and the Spanish national team, was

"an example of integration."

His comments came in response to a column written by Mariano Rajoy, a conservative former prime minister of Spain, who had written that the French team, which has many players of African descent, was a team

"without French people."

Yamal's response was widely interpreted as a pushback against the idea that players of immigrant background do not completely belong to the countries they represent.

Lamine Yamal, who was born and raised in Spain, knows that tension personally. He has faced anti-Muslim chants in Spanish stadiums and has also faced criticism from Moroccans who felt he had turned his back on his roots by choosing to represent Spain rather than Morocco, the country where his father was born.

That broader political backdrop also includes the immigration debate playing out in the United States. As per a report shared by PBS last month, Congress moved closer to providing nearly seventy billion dollars in funding to power President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda. The package was described as a "rotten bill" by Democratic leadership and an "ATM for ICE" by pro-immigrant advocates.

It is that wider context that gave the viral handshake video its added charge for many who believed it.

From Messi bathing baby Lamine Yamal to a World Cup embrace:

Aside from the online debate surrounding the handshake, Lamine Yamal has been making headlines for an entirely different reason. As per a report shared by the BBC, Yamal was at the center of one of the most emotional moments of the World Cup final, as he stepped forward to console a tearful Lionel Messi at the full-time whistle.

Messi, who is thirty-nine years old, stood at the New York New Jersey Stadium and gazed long and hard at Argentina's fans as they sang his name. It may well have been the last time the football icon graces the game's biggest stage. With the world watching, it was Lamine Yamal who offered consolation before the two fell into each other's arms.

The image carried a weight that went far beyond the result. As per the BBC, a photograph taken by Joan Monfort back in September 2007 resurfaced in the build-up to the final, showing a twenty-year-old Messi cradling and bathing a five-month-old baby boy who would grow up to follow so closely in his footballing footsteps. The images had first gone viral two years ago, when Lamine Yamal helped Spain win Euro 2024, after his father posted one online with the caption,

"The beginning of two legends."

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Joan Monfort, who documented the meeting in a series of photographs, reflected on what that image has come to represent.

"It is a true miracle of destiny," he told BBC Sport.

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