The most iconic image ahead of Sunday’s FIFA World Cup final wasn’t taken this week.
It was taken nearly 19 years ago.
Long before Lamine Yamal became Spain’s teenage sensation and long before Lionel Messi cemented his place among football’s immortals, the two unknowingly shared a moment that has since become one of the sport’s most remarkable photographs.
The now-viral image of a 20-year-old Messi gently bathing a 5-month-old Yamal during a Barcelona charity photo shoot has resurfaced ahead of Argentina’s World Cup final against Spain at MetLife Stadium, giving football one of its most poetic storylines in recent memory.
What once appeared to be an ordinary charity calendar shoot has transformed into a snapshot of two generations colliding on the sport’s biggest stage.
A Charity Photoshoot Nobody Could Have Predicted
The story dates back to December 2007.
Barcelona’s foundation and Spanish newspaper Diario Sport organized a charity calendar benefiting UNICEF and other Catalan charities, pairing first-team players with local children selected through a raffle.
Yamal’s family, who lived about 25 miles northeast of Barcelona in Mataró, was among the lucky winners.
Their assigned player happened to be Messi.
Photographer Joan Monfort, who captured the now-famous images, recalled how awkward the session initially felt.
“Lionel Messi is still shy now. He was much more shy when he was starting out, and he finds himself there with a tiny baby in a plastic bath full of water,” Monfort told The Athletic. “At the start, there was not much interaction.”
Messi had only recently begun establishing himself in Barcelona’s senior squad alongside stars such as Ronaldinho, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry.
Neither he nor anyone else could have imagined the baby in the bathtub would someday inherit Barcelona’s famous No. 10 shirt.
“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.”
From Viral Photo to World Cup Final
The photographs remained largely forgotten for more than 16 years.
That changed during Euro 2024 when Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, shared one of the images on social media alongside the caption:
“The beginning of two legends.”
The internet quickly embraced the photo.
Additional images from the shoot surfaced, including Messi cradling baby Yamal in a towel while Yamal’s mother, Sheila Ebana, assisted during the charity session.
When shown the famous photograph after Spain reached Sunday’s World Cup final, Yamal smiled.
“I hope to face him in a final,” he said.
He got his wish.
Destiny Brings Them Together Again
Both players helped ensure that the long-imagined meeting would happen.
Yamal, who turned 19 on Monday, played a key role in Spain’s 2-0 semifinal victory over France. The Barcelona winger won a first-half penalty that Mikel Oyarzabal converted before Pedro Porro doubled Spain’s lead after halftime.
Messi answered one night later by once again rescuing Argentina on football’s biggest stage.
The 39-year-old produced the decisive assist in Argentina’s dramatic 2-1 semifinal comeback over England, tying Pelé and Antoine Griezmann for the most World Cup knockout-stage assists over the past 60 years.
Yamal has completed one of football’s fastest rises, following his starring role in Spain’s Euro 2024 triumph by becoming the face of La Roja’s next generation and inheriting Messi’s iconic No. 10 shirt at Barcelona.
Now the teenager once photographed in Messi’s arms and the man who became Barcelona’s greatest player will meet for the first time on a football pitch—with the World Cup at stake.
Monfort believes fate played an extraordinary role.
“It’s a one-in-a-million chance that this could happen,” he told The Athletic. “It’s such good fortune.”
He called it “the most famous photo I’ve taken in my life.”
On Sunday, nearly two decades after one unknowingly held the other in a plastic bathtub, Messi and Yamal will finally stand across from each other—not for a charity calendar, but for the FIFA World Cup.
Football has produced countless unforgettable images.
Few have aged quite like this one.
Viral Messi-Lamine Yamal Photo Takes on New Meaning Before World Cup Final