Inés García said she met Lamin Yamal on social media, rejecting the viral store story that had circulated around their relationship. She made the point while getting ready to fly to Los Angeles to support the Spanish team, keeping the focus on how the relationship actually began rather than the rumor.
Inés García on the timeline
“I'm finally going to tell you how I met my boyfriend!” García said, then cut straight to the point: “Here's the real story: 3, 2, 1... social media!” She added, “I’d love to tell you some super crazy story, like I saw him at an airport, or ran into him and dropped my papers, and he helped me pick them up. Nope, nope, nope. We met on social media,” which closes the gap the snack-store version left open.
García also said, “People started seeing us together when we went to Greece,” and, “I've known Lamine for a lot longer than that. Not quite three years, but a good deal more months than people realize, even now.” That gives the relationship a longer timeline than the public one most viewers had been working from, and it explains why the pair were already being discussed before the current World Cup run drew fresh attention.
Spain's matches and Los Angeles
During the World Cup, García has been present at Spain's matches and shared a photo with Keyne at one of the stadiums. She also said she, her friend, Yamal, his family, and his friends were enjoying the tournament, and added, “We're going to win the World Cup, he's the best,” a line that reads less like gossip and more like someone fully invested in the team’s run.
García was getting ready to fly to Los Angeles for Spain's match against Austria for a spot in the round of 16, so the relationship story is moving in step with the tournament schedule. Yamal turns 19 on July 13, and García turns 21 on July 9, which puts both of them in the middle of a very public phase just as the football calendar tightens.
Yamal, Nicki Nicole, and the rumor
November 2025 matters here because Yamal had already confirmed the end of his relationship with Nicki Nicole by then, which left room for the new pairing to become the subject of speculation. García’s correction matters because it replaces the viral snack-store version with a direct timeline: social media first, then public sightings later, then the World Cup spotlight.
That is the piece readers needed. If the rumor made the relationship sound like a one-off encounter, García’s account turns it into something that had been developing well before the latest wave of attention, and the only detail still hanging in the air is the exact moment they first connected online.
