Images of a young Lionel Messi giving Spain’s young phenom Lamine Yamal a bath — taken nearly two decades ago for a charity calendar — are resurfacing ahead of their clash in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final.
When Lamine Yamal first burst onto the soccer scene in 2024, his father, Mounir Nasraoui, took to Instagram to post a baby picture of his son — who, at the time, was playing with Spain’s national team during the UEFA European Championship.
“The beginning of two legends,” the caption read. The image was one of a handful taken during a 2007 photoshoot, and featured Messi holding an infant Yamal. Other photos from the same shoot were released to the public after Nasraoui’s post went viral.
🚨🇪🇸🇦🇷 Lionel Messi with Lamine Yamal as a baby back in December 2007, from Spanish newspaper @sport.
It was a photoshoot organised for a charity calendar. pic.twitter.com/C7jCKbYnp7
— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) July 5, 2024
In December of 2007, a charity raffle was created between Spanish local newspaper Diario Sport and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Winners of the raffle would earn a slot with a professional soccer player from FC Barcelona for a photo that would appear in a promotional calendar.
Yamal’s family won the raffle, and they opted to pair their infant son with a 20-year-old Messi — before the fame and illustrious career. The photoshoot also features images that include Yamal’s mother, all taken at Camp Nou, FC Barcelona’s stadium. The same stadium is now home to Yamal, who has been in the program since he was seven years old — and is the very stadium where Messi blossomed into one of the greatest players of all time.
Freelance photographer Joan Monfort was responsible for the now-viral photos. In 2024, he was interviewed by The Athletic when the photoshoot originally blew up, and he said that he was just as shocked as the rest of the world.
“It’s something incredible,” Monfort said in 2024. “Back then, nobody could imagine that this baby would be who he is now – and you could have not known that Messi would become who he became, either. We are talking about 2007. Messi was only beginning at [Barcelona] then. Destiny plays an important role in these things.”
The World Cup final was set after Spain took down France 2-0 in the first semifinal game, making Yamal undefeated against the French in his young career through three matches. Messi and Argentina had to work a little harder, scoring two goals in seven minutes to come back and beat England 2-1 late in the match.
Yamal and Messi will soon compete on the biggest stage in their sport, fulfilling a storybook face-off 19 years in the making.
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