Yamal under fire from disability rights group after 18th birthday bash

MADRID — A Spanish disability rights group has vowed to take legal action over the reported hiring of people with dwarfism as entertainment at Barcelona soccer star Lamine Yamal's recent 18th birthday party, condemning the practice as discriminatory.

The young winger, who helped Spain clinch the European Championship last year, celebrated his coming of age on Saturday with a starstudded jamboree that included celebrity guests from the music industry such as Bizarrap and Bad Gyal or Quevedo, as well as many of his Barca teammates and social media influencers.

The Association for People with Achondroplasia and Other Skeletal Dysplasias (ADEE) said in a statement that the use of people with dwarfism as spectacle at Yamal's party perpetuated stereotypes, fueled discrimination and undermined the dignity and rights of people with disabilities.