When Lionel Messi bathed Lamine Yamal 19 years ago

As Argentina prepare to take on Spain in the FIFA World Cup final, an extraordinary photograph of Lionel Messi bathing a baby Lamine Yamal has resurfaced and gone viral across social media.

The now-iconic image captures a 20-year-old Messi gently holding a five-month-old Yamal during a charity photo shoot organised by FC Barcelona in 2007.

The photographs were taken by Joan Monfort, who was freelancing for the Associated Press. Speaking in 2024, Monfort explained that the session was part of a charity calendar organised by Barcelona’s foundation, Spanish newspaper Diario Sport and UNICEF to raise funds for humanitarian causes in Catalonia.

Families entered a raffle for the opportunity to have their children photographed with Barcelona’s first-team players at the club’s stadium. Yamal’s family, who lived in Mataró, around 40 kilometres northeast of Barcelona, won the draw. His mother, Sheila Ebana, also appeared in several of the photographs.

“Messi is a pretty introverted guy, he’s shy,” Monfort told the AP. “He was coming out of the locker room and suddenly he finds himself in another locker room with a plastic tub full of water and a baby in it. It was complicated. He didn’t even know how to hold him at first.”

“It’s something incredible,” Monfort said. “Back then, nobody could imagine that this baby would be who he is now – and you could not have known that Messi would become who he became, either.”

For more than 16 years, the photographs remained largely forgotten. They resurfaced during Euro 2024 when Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, shared one of the images on social media with the caption: “The beginning of two legends.”

When shown the famous photograph after Spain secured their place in the World Cup final, Yamal smiled and said: “I hope to face him in a final.”

Messi heads into Sunday’s showpiece after once again delivering for Argentina on football’s biggest stage. The 39-year-old provided the decisive assist in Argentina’s dramatic 2-1 semi-final victory over England, drawing level with Pelé and Antoine Griezmann for the most World Cup knockout-stage assists recorded over the past six decades.

Yamal, meanwhile, has completed one of football’s most remarkable rises. After starring in Spain’s Euro 2024 triumph, he has emerged as the face of La Roja’s new generation while establishing himself as Barcelona’s centrepiece.

Monfort believes the story is simply extraordinary.

“It’s a one-in-a-million chance that this could happen,” he told The Athletic. “It’s such good fortune.”