NEW YORK — Lionel Messi says a viral photograph showing him bathing a six-month-old Lamine Yamal nearly two decades ago captures a story almost too improbable for fiction, one that culminates Sunday when the two players face each other for the first time at the international level in the World Cup final.
“That photo is incredible,” Messi said Friday. “I took a picture with him when he was a baby … the fact that we’re both playing in the World Cup now is crazy.”
AFP
The image dates back to 2007, when a 20-year-old Messi and a 6-month-old Yamal were photographed together during a charity calendar shoot inside the FC Barcelona dressing room at Camp Nou. The project was organized by the local newspaper Sport in partnership with UNICEF, and soccer’s long odds later paired the two in one of the calendar’s featured images.
Nineteen years later, that photograph has resurfaced as one of the enduring storylines of the 2026 World Cup, as the 19-year-old Yamal prepares to face the 39-year-old Messi with a championship on the line.
Speaking at FIFA’s Fanatics Fest in New York, Messi offered a mix of admiration and competitive resolve when discussing the young Spanish winger who has emerged as one of the tournament’s breakout stars.
“He’s one of the best in the world right now,” Messi said. “I wish him luck because his success will be Barcelona’s success, [but] we’ll try to keep him from playing at his best. Spain has a great team, not just him. We have our own weapons, too.”
He continued: “He’s a tremendous player … a global star. He’s 19 years old and has his whole career ahead of him. I wish him the best, but we’ll give it our all to ensure he doesn’t become champion this time.”
The photograph’s renewed popularity has not gone unnoticed by the man who took it. Photographer Joan Monfort said the surge in attention around his nearly two-decade-old image has been unlike anything he has experienced.
“The photo has exploded all over the world, and the fact that the final is in the U.S. has given it an extra push,” Monfort told The Associated Press. “And now this has culminated with the final between Messi and Yamal. It is better than any film script.”
Spain midfielder Mikel Merino, a teammate of Yamal’s, said his first reaction upon seeing the photo mirrored that of many fans online.
“The first time I saw it, I thought it was AI and that it wasn’t even real,” Merino said Friday.
“It’s unbelievable that two of the best players to have played the game — and hopefully Lamine, in the future, will be one of those — share a picture like that,” Merino added. “Hopefully we’re going to see a very bright final with those two protagonists at their best, playing and giving all the fans a great spectacle.”
Sunday’s meeting between Messi and Yamal will mark just the latest chapter in a rivalry that has grown increasingly significant as this World Cup has progressed. Messi, who has scored eight goals and provided four assists through the tournament, is preparing for his third World Cup final appearance, having previously reached the championship match in 2014 and again in 2022, when Argentina won the title. He currently sits tied with France’s Kylian Mbappé atop the 2026 World Cup Golden Boot standings as Argentina bids to become the first team to win back-to-back World Cup titles since Brazil accomplished the feat in 1958 and 1962.
For Spain, Sunday represents an opportunity to add a second World Cup title to the nation’s history, following its triumph in 2010. Yamal, who broke into Barcelona’s first team as a teenager, has been one of the most closely watched young talents in world soccer over the past two years and now finds himself on the sport’s biggest stage opposite the player many consider the greatest of his generation.
The two nations had been scheduled to meet earlier this year in the Finalissima, an exhibition match between the reigning European and South American champions that was planned for March in Qatar. That match was called off due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, leaving Sunday’s World Cup final as the first competitive meeting between the sides since the tournament began.
Kickoff for the final is set for 3 p.m. ET, with the match being broadcast on FOX and Telemundo in the United States. The showdown caps a tournament that has been defined in part by the emergence of Yamal as one of the sport’s next global superstars, even as Messi continues to demonstrate the form that has kept him among the world’s elite players well into his late 30s.
Beyond the individual matchup between Messi and Yamal, Sunday’s final features two of the tournament’s most balanced squads. Spain has advanced behind a possession-based approach anchored by Rodri, the reigning Ballon d’Or winner, while Argentina has leaned on its blend of experienced leadership and dynamic attacking talent to reach the championship match for the second consecutive World Cup cycle.
Whatever the outcome, the photograph that once seemed like a forgotten keepsake from a Barcelona charity shoot has become an unlikely symbol of the tournament — a reminder, as Monfort put it, that soccer occasionally writes storylines no screenwriter could invent.
The final between Argentina and Spain kicks off Sunday afternoon, with a World Cup title, and a new chapter in the Messi-Yamal story, on the line.
