Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal will face each other in the upcoming World Cup final, completing a remarkable circle that began in a Camp Nou dressing room seventeen years ago. The Argentina captain and Spain‘s teenage sensation feature together in a 2007 charity photograph that has since become one of football’s most extraordinary images.
The Photoshoot
In December 2007, Sport newspaper organised a charity calendar on behalf of Barcelona and Unicef. Players were photographed with children for each month, with a 19-year-old Messi assigned to January. Lamine Yamal, then four months old, had been entered into a draw by his mother Sheila and was selected to appear alongside the Argentine. Photographer Joan Monfort brought a plastic bath and rubber duck to the session in the away dressing room. Although the baby was tiny and Messi was timid, they captured an image that Monfort filed away and forgot, unaware of its future significance.
Rediscovery and Destiny
The photograph remained lost until Euro 2024, when Yamal’s father Mounir discovered and posted it on social media with the tagline “the beginning of two legends”. The timing proved perfect. Four days later, Yamal scored against France to send Spain to the European Championship final, announcing his arrival on the global stage. Monfort, who previously did not believe in destiny, now says he does.
Spain coach Luis de la Fuente believes the reunion represents something beyond mere coincidence. He stated that “everything happens for a reason” and suggested that what appears to be chance may have spiritual significance. Yamal himself embraced the narrative, expressing hope that he would face Messi in the final. When shown the photograph again recently, he observed that both he and Messi had grown considerably since that December afternoon.
From La Masia to the World Stage
Both forwards share deep Barcelona roots, though their paths to Catalonia differed. Messi joined the club from Argentina aged twelve, famously agreeing terms on a napkin. Yamal, born in Catalonia to a Moroccan father and Equatorial Guinean mother, entered La Masia after scouts spotted him playing for CF La Torreta in Mataró. While Messi chose to represent his native Argentina despite his European club career, Yamal—who signals the 08304 postcode of his Rocafonda neighbourhood when he scores—opted to play for Spain over Morocco.
Now the veteran and the teenager meet in the sport’s biggest match, their lives intersecting again at the exact moment they occupy opposite sides of the world’s biggest sporting event.