No longer a baby in a bathtub, Yamal reunites with Messi in the World Cup final

In 2007, 20-year-old Lionel Messi posed for a Barcelona charity calendar, gently bathing a baby in a plastic tub. The baby’s family won a UNICEF draw. No one thought about this photo again for 17 years.

The baby’s name was Lamine Yamal.

You could write fiction for a decade and never get there. In the World Cup final in New Jersey on Sunday, the greatest player of all time takes on the teenager many believe will inherit the title, and there is photographic evidence that Messi literally held it first. Both passed through La Masia. Both wore number 19 at Barcelona before switching to 10. The football gods stopped being subtle a long time ago.

Somehow, both teams are just as compelling as the two stars.

Start with the story, because there is almost none. Spain and Argentina have met once in a World Cup, a 1966 group stage match that Argentina won 2-1 thanks to a brace from Luis Artime. They have never met in a knockout match. The all-time series is deadlocked with six wins apiece. This year’s Finalissima was supposed to settle things in March before being canceled. The reigning European and South American champions will therefore meet for the first time in the history of a World Cup final, with the greatest sporting trophy on the table. GOOD. This works too.

The paths couldn’t be more different. Spain dismantled France 2-0, making the tournament’s most feared attack seem ordinary. This is the best possession team in the world and, more importantly, the team with the clearest identity in the sport. In an era where so many teams press and build in the same way, Spain still looks undeniably like Spain. That’s worth something in a unique finale.

And the names that animate it are not those predicted. Yamal had one goal throughout the tournament, scored on the second day, which would have looked like a slump in May and more described a runner-up. Mikel Oyarzabal leads the team in scoring and buried the penalty that broke France. Rodri looked like the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner again, conducting business in midfield. Behind him, the wall: Pau Cubarsí and Aymeric Laporte have conceded one goal in seven matches, Unai Simón set a World Cup clean sheet record and the backs have been a cheat code on both sides. Marc Cucurella erased Kylian Mbappé for 90 minutes, while Pedro Porro put the nail in the coffin.

Argentina, meanwhile, stumbled in the round of 16 like a heavyweight that keeps getting back up: 3-2 against Cape Verde, 3-2 against Egypt, 3-1 against Switzerland in extra time, and now 2-1 against England after falling behind in the 85th minute. No team had ever scored multiple stoppage-time winners in a single World Cup. Argentina has now done it. At some point, “lucky” stops being the word and “inevitable” takes over.

The Albiceleste engine is 39 years old. Messi scored both goals against England, has scored eight times in the tournament and continues to rewrite the record books every week. His legs have aged. This is not the case with his brain.

And Argentina showed England exactly what Spain should expect. The first 30 minutes in Atlanta were a street fight: eight fouls and no shots on target from the first hydration break, bodies on the ground everywhere and a rhythm that was nowhere to be found. Thomas Tuchel’s England took the lead in the 55th minute through Anthony Gordon, then sat on it, inviting wave after wave until the barrage broke. Enzo Fernández bent one from distance. Lautaro Martínez headed the winner in stoppage time from a fantastic right-footed cross from Messi.

Tuchel was torched for his tactics in the second half, and rightly so, but here’s Sunday’s warning: Argentina will try to drag Spain down the same aisle.

That’s really the whole finale. Spain wants a game of order. Argentina wants a game of chaos. One team conceded just one goal. The other refuses to die.

And in the midst of it all, a man and the baby he once bathed, finding themselves once again before the eyes of the world.