Nearly 20 years on from Messi bathing Yamal, to a World Cup final | OneFootball

Football has stories that surpass any fiction. After the Argentina National Team qualified for the 2026 World Cup final, a photograph went viral again—one that now takes on a mystical and deeply symbolic tone: a barely 20-year-old Lionel Messi holding a newborn baby in his arms who, 19 years later, would become his direct rival in the match for the World Cup: Lamine Yamal.

The incredible image was taken in the Camp Nou dressing rooms in December 2007. It all began thanks to a charity initiative by UNICEF, which held a raffle in the humble neighborhood of Rocafonda, in Mataró, so that a family could have photos taken with a Barcelona star. Fate would have it that the winners were Lamine’s parents. The man responsible for immortalizing the moment was Joan Monfort, a freelance photographer for the AP agency, who in an interview with The Athletic revealed the story behind the shot: “Messi was a very shy kid. At first it was difficult because Leo didn’t even know how to hold the baby.”

From a distance, the conceptual value of the snapshot is striking. It is the exact record of the greatest player of all time, when he was still far from becoming that, interacting with the man who would become his great generational successor two decades later. What were the mathematical odds that that harmless baby would end up facing him in the final World Cup match of Messi’s career? Not only in life, but in football too, there definitely has to be something more.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.