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After a 2-1 victory over England, reigning champions Argentina secured their place in the World Cup final against European champions Spain, setting up a generational clash between Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal.
Although Sunday’s final in New Jersey marks the first time the 39-year-old Argentine veteran and the 19-year-old Spanish winger will face each other, it is not their first meeting.
The duo’s story dates back almost two decades, when 20-year-old Messi first crossed paths with baby Yamal during a charity promotional photo shoot in Barcelona.
In late 2007, during a charity raffle organized by Spanish sports newspaper Diario Sport and the United Nations Children’s Fund, known as UNICEF, Yamal’s family won a place in a promotional photo shoot with a young Lionel Messi.
The draw offered families in Catalonia the opportunity to participate in a promotional calendar photo shoot with professional football players from FC Barcelona. The family of Lamine Yamal, who was only six months old at the time, won one of the places in the draw.
The resulting photoshoot took place in the locker room at the Camp Nou stadium. Twenty-year-old Lionel Messi, who was then establishing himself as a key player for Barcelona, was associated with young Lamine Yamal.
The photo shoot included Messi holding Yamal in a blue plastic baby bathtub. At the time of filming, the participants had no connection other than the raffle, and the footage was archived after publication in the 2008 charity calendar.
A photo from the shoot went viral after being posted on Instagram by Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, alongside the caption: “The start of two legends” after Euro 2024.
Nearly 20 years after that photoshoot, the baby in the photo and the legend herself are destined to face off on the international stage.
The bond between the two athletes extends beyond their shared history in Barcelona and will now reach the sport’s biggest stage, the World Cup final.
