Lionel Messi calls the iconic photo with a baby Lamine Yamal 'crazy' as they prepare to face off in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final.
Lionel Messi has described the iconic 2007 photo with a baby Lamine Yamal as surreal. On the eve of their World Cup final meeting, the Argentine legend reflected on the remarkable twist of fate that sees them share the same stage nearly two decades later.
The image has become one of the defining narratives of the 2026 World Cup. It shows a 20-year-old Lionel Messi, his hair long and his legend still in its infancy, gently bathing a five-month-old Lamine Yamal in a plastic tub. The shoot, organized for a charity calendar in collaboration with UNICEF and local newspaper Diario Sport, was the result of a random raffle won by Yamal's family at Barcelona's Camp Nou. It was a moment of pure chance—a shy young footballer paired with a baby who, nearly two decades later, is now his rival on the greatest stage in football.
Ahead of Sunday's final in New Jersey, Messi spoke about the photograph with a sense of wonder. "Honestly, that photo of us is crazy, because—well, that's life, right? I took a photo with him as a baby, and here we both are, facing off in a World Cup," Messi said on Friday. The 39-year-old, who is likely playing his last World Cup match, acknowledged the teenager's meteoric rise. "Lamine is a huge talent, someone I've followed a lot because he plays for a club I love… he's one of the world's benchmark players at 19 years old, and he has his whole career ahead of him."
The photographer who captured the moment, Joan Monfort, recalled the difficulty of the shoot, as the reserved Argentine struggled initially to hold the infant. "It was complicated. He didn't even know how to hold him at first," Monfort told the Associated Press. The image lay dormant for years until it was shared by Yamal's father in 2024 as the then-17-year-old was taking the European Championship by storm. Now, what was once a personal family memento has become a symbol of destiny. While Yamal wears Barcelona's number 10 and carries the hopes of Spain, the man he was photographed with stands as the defending champion.
The two have never faced each other on the pitch, making Sunday's final a historic first encounter. For Yamal, the opportunity to play against the player he respects as the greatest in history is a significant milestone in his own burgeoning career, though he has consistently rejected comparisons to the Argentine legend. As Messi concluded, "He has a great opportunity to achieve something historic, which we'll try our hardest to make sure doesn't happen this time. I just want to wish him the best." The final whistle will write the final chapter of a story that began with a photograph in a locker room, defying all probability.
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