"I guess Messi baptised him in that water to become the next king of football." Whoever wrote that on social media this week deserves some kind of prize, because no line has better captured what football fans are collectively losing their minds over right now.
Photos taken in 2007 show a young, long-haired Lionel Messi holding and bathing a chubby baby Lamine Yamal — now his opponent in Sunday's World Cup final in New Jersey. The shoot happened after Yamal's family won a UNICEF raffle for a photoshoot with a Barcelona player, according to photographer Joan Montfort. Messi was the player. Yamal was a few months old.
The photo that started it all
The images first resurfaced during Euro 2024, when Yamal's father shared one of them on social media. "The beginning of two legends," he wrote — at the time, Yamal was becoming the youngest player ever to appear in a European Championship. The post landed differently then. It lands on another planet entirely now.
Messi is 39. He's the defining player of his generation — seven Ballons d'Or, a 2022 World Cup winner, a career so long that the baby in those 2007 photos grew up and qualified to face him in a final. Yamal is 19, Spain's most electric attacker, and already the kind of player opposition coaches lose sleep over.
That's the story of Sunday's final in one image: the man who shaped modern football, about to face the kid he once held in a bathtub.
What it means for Sunday
Beyond the sentiment, there's a genuinely compelling tactical clash here. Spain's fluid attacking system, with Yamal cutting in from the right, will test an Argentina backline that's been solid but not untouchable. Messi, meanwhile, remains the player who changes games in moments no one sees coming — his influence on Argentina's odds shouldn't be underestimated purely on the basis of age.
"Football has a beautiful way of coming full circle," one fan wrote. For once, the cliché actually fits.
