Spain's Lamine Yamal and England's Jude Bellingham new ...

Spain's football player Lamine Yamal made history as he was the youngest to score in the Euro 2024 championship during the semifinals against France. Only a day after Sunday's Euro final and Spain's win, Yamal has also been awarded another honorific prize among the Catalan popular culture.  

Caganer.com, a company in the Baix Empordà county, which specializes in hand-made caganer figurines, a pooping nativity scene figure that is a Catalan Christmas tradition, made its first Lamine Yamal figure as one of the most notorious male football players at the moment. 

The English football player Jude Bellingham was also a new addition to the list of famous people turned into caganer figures. Although the Lions did not win Sunday's match – the second consecutive Euro final England has lost –, Bellingham is one of the players that has also drawn a lot of attention during the championship as well as during all the 2023-2024 season.  

Bellingham currently plays for Real Madrid and has won this season's Spanish League and Champions League.  

Both Yamal and Bellingham can be purchased with the two shirts they play with: their national team (Spain and England) and their Spanish league team (FC Barcelona and Real Madrid).  

With the launch of these new figurines, the company is renovating its sports catalog in order to be up to date and have the "best of every sport represented," as they announced in a statement. 

Sports figurines are part of the company's future, with Carlos Alcaraz's addition last year, and the consolidation of Messi's caganer as the most sold figure.  

Caganers are traditional Christmas figurines depicting anyone from traditional peasants to global celebrities, all in the middle of doing a poo. 

Your browser does not support the video element Caganers: Catalonia's curious Christmas crappers / ACN

Caganers, which literally means poopers, have been around since at least the 18th century. It's customary for them to be placed in the nativity scene, along with the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and wise men, and the donkey. 

Listen to our Filling the Sink podcast episode from December 2020 to learn more about the Christmas traditions in Catalonia.