The photograph is extraordinary: a smiling, 20-year-old Lionel Messi, already a Barcelona regular, cradles a tiny five-month-old baby in the away dressing room at the Camp Nou. That baby, Lamine Yamal, is now 19 and will face Messi in Sunday's World Cup final between Argentina and Spain. Their paths crossed nearly two decades before the greatest fixture in football, in a moment the photographer calls “a true miracle of destiny”.
The images were taken in 2007 as part of a raffle run by Catalan newspaper Sport in conjunction with Barcelona shirt sponsor Unicef. Yamal's parents, Morocco-born Mounir Nasraoui and Sheila Ebana from Equatorial Guinea, had entered after he was born. Winners were randomly selected to have professional photos taken of their baby with a Barcelona first-team player. On the day, the family was paired with Messi by chance.
“Photo of Messi cradling baby Lamine Yamal resurfaces as they prepare to face each other in the World Cup final.”
“I had no idea it was Lamine in the photo until one of my friends called me in 2024 and told me his father had posted it to Instagram,” recalls photographer Joan Monfort. “Messi is a really introverted guy, very timid and shy. He came into the dressing room and suddenly had to take these photos with a little baby – not even a kid, a proper baby – and his face changed like he had no idea what to do!”
Monfort describes Messi adapting quickly, while Yamal’s mother helped calm the child. “Lamine was a very happy, smiley little baby. His mum Sheila helped us, she was a young girl and they were a very poor family, but they were very nice to work with.”
The photos resurfaced two years ago, after Yamal helped Spain win Euro 2024. His father posted one online with the caption “The beginning of two legends”. Now, with Messi at 39 and Yamal at 19, their paths converge on the sport’s biggest stage. Monfort sums up the connection: “It is serendipity – when you find something extra special, so much bigger than you ever thought. If you wrote this in a film it would not seem possible.”
Sunday’s final will be the first time the two have faced each other on the pitch – a meeting that, given the gap in age and generations, seemed almost impossible. Yet the photograph, taken in a quiet dressing room almost two decades ago, hints that this moment was always written.
