Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal will meet Sunday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey with the 2026 World Cup title on the line. The first time the two soccer stars met was in a very different setting and only one of them has a memory of it.
In December 2007, a 20-year-old Messi was introduced to a five-month old Yamal during a charity calendar photo shoot put together by Barcelona‘s foundation and Spanish sports newspaper Diario Sport. The event was an annual tradition put together by the La Liga side with players photographed with children.
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Freelance photographer Joan Monfort told The Associated Press in 2024 that the Yamals won a raffle, which was held in conjunction with UNICEF, to have their young son take a picture with a Barcelona player. Little did they know who would be part of the photo and the history it would make.
Baby Yamal was joined by his mother inside the visiting locker room at Camp Nou in the fall of 2007. There sat a plastic bathtub filled with soapy water and a very young, future soccer star not knowing what was going on. Messi, more of an introvert, was unsure of how to interact with the infant, Monfort recalled.
“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,” Monfort said. “It was complicated. He didn’t even know how to hold him at first.”
The photos resurfaced online two years ago when Yamal’s father posted on Instagram with the caption, “the beginning of two legends.”
“It’s something incredible,” Monfort told The Athletic in 2024. “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.
“We are talking about 2007. Messi was only beginning at Barca then. Destiny plays an important role in these things.”
Messi was already several years into his professional career by that time and had won two league titles and the Champions League. Seven years later, Yamal joined Barcelona’s famed La Masia youth academy to start his journey toward becoming a professional player.
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In April 2023, a 15-year-old Yamal made his Barcelona debut wearing the famed No. 10 jersey, which Messi also wore. Five months later, he was called up to Spain’s national team. The following summer he was a key part La Roja‘s win at Euro 2024.
Now, two years later, Yamal could make it a double by winning the World Cup against the man he first met while sitting in a bathtub.
