If you are tuning into the World Cup 2026, you might want to pay attention to the hands of Spanish right winger Lamine Yamal because chances are he’ll be sporting some sort of bandages during his country’s matches.
You might not have noticed, because it has been a while since he last played a match (he tore his hamstring during a La Liga game back in April and skipped the rest of the season and most of the pre-World Cup friendlies), but Yamal usually wears bandages on his hands during matches.
If you are an avid soccer watcher, you might have noticed the star began wearing his hand and finger bandages almost religiously towards the beginning of 2025. One of the first sightings of Yamal wearing the tapes was during a game against Rayo Vallecano in February. They have since become a recurring theme in his official kit.
In most FC Barcelona games in recent history, you can see the star religiously wearing his right hand wrapped in athletic compression tape from the wrist to his knuckles. The star also adds two smaller strips of bandage on his phalanges, tying his middle and ring fingers together. On his left wrist, he also often wears a piece of white tape. But why? Well, ahead of Spain's first match in the FIFA World Cup 2026, Yamal cleared the mystery.
In a recent vlog posted on his official YouTube channel, Yamal answered a handful of pressing questions from fans before jetting off to North America for the World Cup. In the video, a fan asked him, “Why is your hand in a bandage during matches?” and he didn’t hesitate to get candid.
“I wear the bandages because, whilst playing PlayStation, I punched my TV and I hurt my fingers badly. They got really swollen. From then on, I started wearing the bandages, and I felt like they looked really good on me, as if I were Karim Benzema,” he explained. “I remember we started joking and saying ‘KB9,’ and I just kept it. And I think it really suits me, so I just kept doing it.”
French professional soccer legend Karim Benzema, also known by the moniker of KB9, famously wrapped his right hand in a bandage during matches after sustaining an injury to his pinky finger in 2019 while playing for Real Madrid. Benzema was reportedly advised to get surgery, but kept postponing it so as not to miss any games. The injury has since become chronic, if painless, and the bandage for extra support has become his signature look. And now, Yamal is following in the footsteps.
Both bandage styles worn by Yamal are staples in his La Liga games and have also appeared at international tournaments, including the UEFA Nations League. However, during other international schedules, such as the friendly against Egypt in March, he only wore his wrist support, so we’ll have to keep monitoring his fingers to see if he’s bringing them to the World Cup.
