Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal will meet in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final, 19 years after an extraordinary photograph captured a young Messi bathing the Spanish star when he was only a baby. The image may now look like a carefully planned portrait connecting two football generations, but neither family knew what the future held when it was taken in 2007.
Messi was 20 years old and emerging as one of Barcelona’s most exciting players. Yamal, who would eventually follow him through Barcelona’s academy and into the first team, was reportedly about five months old.
The photograph has resurfaced ahead of Sunday’s final between Argentina and Spain, transforming an old charity-calendar image into one of the most remarkable stories surrounding the tournament.
Why was Messi bathing Lamine Yamal?
The bath was part of a charity photo shoot rather than a private meeting between the two families. Barcelona’s foundation and Catalan newspaper Diario Sport worked with UNICEF on a calendar intended to raise awareness and support for children.
Families from the Rocafonda neighbourhood of Mataró, where Yamal grew up, were reportedly entered into a draw offering them the opportunity to be photographed with a Barcelona player. Yamal’s family was selected and paired with Messi.
Photographer Joan Monfort took the now-famous pictures at Barcelona’s Camp Nou. One image showed Messi helping bathe the infant Yamal in a small plastic tub while the baby’s mother, Sheila Ebana, watched beside them.
Monfort later recalled that Messi was quiet and initially unsure how to handle the baby during the session. There was no suggestion at the time that the child would become an elite footballer, much less a future opponent of Messi in a World Cup final.
The photographs appeared in a charity calendar published in 2008 and largely disappeared from public attention. They returned to prominence in 2024 after Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, shared one of them on social media as his son helped Spain win the European Championship.
The story was verified by Monfort and publications that traced the photographs to the original charity campaign. Details of the shoot were also documented when the image first went viral following Spain’s Euro 2024 success by Euronews.
Messi and Yamal will now meet for football’s biggest prize
The image carries even greater significance after Argentina and Spain qualified for the 2026 World Cup final. The match will be played on Sunday, July 19, at New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford.
Argentina reached the final with a dramatic 2-1 comeback victory over England. Messi created both late goals, turning a match that appeared to be slipping away from the defending champions. The result added another chapter to the intense England–Argentina World Cup rivalry.
Spain secured its place by defeating France in the other semifinal. Yamal has become a central figure in a Spanish side seeking its second World Cup title after its triumph in 2010.
According to the Associated Press, Argentina enters the final having won all seven of its matches, while Spain is riding a lengthy unbeaten run. Argentina can become the first men’s team since Brazil in 1962 to retain the World Cup.
The final also creates a symbolic passing-of-the-torch moment. Messi, now 39, is attempting to win another World Cup near the end of an extraordinary career. Yamal, 19, represents the generation that grew up watching him dominate at Barcelona.
Their journeys contain several parallels. Both developed at Barcelona’s La Masia academy, broke into the senior team while still teenagers and became left-footed attacking stars comfortable creating chances from the right side. Yamal has repeatedly faced comparisons with Messi, although he has stressed the importance of building his own career.
The tournament’s individual scoring battle adds another layer to the final, with Messi remaining prominent in the 2026 World Cup Golden Boot race.
Messi and Yamal are not expected to mark each other directly, but the match will inevitably be presented as a confrontation between football’s established icon and its most celebrated young talent.
Whatever happens in New Jersey, the 2007 photograph has already acquired a meaning nobody involved in the shoot could have imagined. A nervous young Messi was asked to hold and bathe an unknown baby for a charity calendar. Nineteen years later, that baby will line up for Spain while Messi leads Argentina in a contest for the World Cup.
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