Sunday’s confrontation between Argentina and Spain will be the first match between Messi, who is 39 years old, and Plamen Yamal, who turned 19 this week.
The irony is that their relationship began before Yamal knew the meaning of football. In 2007, Messi was beginning to prove himself as a key player in Barcelona, while Yamal was an infant in the arms of his family.
The photos were taken by photographer Joan Monfort inside the visiting team’s dressing room at Camp Nou. The family had won a competition organized by the Catalan newspaper Sport in cooperation with Barcelona and UNICEF, and the prize was a photo session of a child with one of the first team players.
Coincidentally, the player was Messi.
Today, Monfort says, it seems “a miracle of fate,” adding: “If this story had been written into a movie, it would not have seemed believable.”
The pictures returned to circulation two years ago, after Yamal’s contribution to Spain’s victory in the 2024 European Cup, when his father posted one of the snapshots on Instagram and wrote: “The beginning of two legends.”
In the photos, Messi appears smiling as he holds the child and participates in bathing him. No one knew at the time that this baby would later follow a football path very close to Messi’s, from the Barcelona academy to the right wing, and then to his country’s national team.
Monfort says that he did not know that the child in the photo was Lamine Yamal, until one of his friends called him in 2024 and told him that the player’s father had posted the photo.
He adds that Messi was very shy by nature, and at first seemed uncomfortable with the idea of taking pictures with an infant, but he dealt with the situation quickly and professionally.
At the time, Messi was wearing the number 19 with Barcelona, before inheriting the number 10 following Ronaldinho’s departure the following year.
By the time he was 19 years old, Messi had scored 11 goals in his career, and won the Spanish League and the Champions League once. As for Yamal, he is 19 years old and has much greater numbers: 56 goals, 3 Spanish League titles, a King’s Cup title, and the 2024 European Cup with Spain.
Yamal has a name with a special story. “Yamal” is not his family name, but rather the second name of his first two names. His full name is Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ibana, and he wears “Lamine Yamal” on the Barcelona and Spain shirt in honor of two people who helped his family during his birth.
According to Spanish reports, his father promised to give his son both names after two friends helped the family financially at a time when it was going through difficult circumstances.
Yamal grew up in the Rocafunda neighborhood of Mataro, north of Barcelona. It is a working class neighborhood with a long history of immigration. The player sometimes celebrates his goals by making a 3-0-4 gesture with his fingers, referring to the neighborhood zip code.
Yamal said during the tournament that what his parents did for him could not be forgotten, stressing that helping a child play football becomes a very difficult task when the family does not have enough money.
For Monfort, facing Messi and Yamal in the World Cup final feels like closing a circle that began nearly two decades ago.
The Catalan photographer, a Barcelona fan, says his heart is “broken in two.” On the one hand, he believes that Messi winning the World Cup for the second time would be an ideal conclusion to his career. On the other hand, he knows that Yamal and Spain are experiencing a strong moment, and that his coronation now will give his career early historical meaning.
Sunday’s final will not just be a match between Argentina and Spain. It will be a meeting between two times: Messi, who is approaching the final chapter, and Yamal, who is beginning to write his first chapter.
