The upcoming World Cup final between Argentina and Spain will pit Lionel Messi against Lamine Yamal, completing a remarkable circle that began in a Camp Nou dressing room in 2007. The pair are set to face each other on Sunday, seventeen years after a charity photoshoot saw a teenage Messi bathing an infant Yamal.
The Camp Nou Photoshoot
In December 2007, Sport newspaper organised a charity calendar on behalf of Barcelona and Unicef. Players were photographed with children for each month of the year, with Ronaldinho representing July and 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. Despite Messi’s timidity and the baby’s tiny frame, they captured the image that would later stun the football world. Monfort filed the photograph away and forgot about it as both subjects began their journeys toward greatness.
Destiny or Coincidence?
The image 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.
Spain manager Luis de la Fuente suggested the reunion represents something beyond mere chance. He noted that while Messi may have held many babies during such charity work, believers might view coincidence as “God’s pseudonym when he doesn’t want to sign his name”. Yamal himself embraced the narrative, stating, “God willing, I can face him in the final.” When shown the photograph again recently, he observed that both he and “Leo” 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. He could have represented Morocco but had no doubt about his international allegiance.
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.