The remarkable photos of Lionel Messi and baby Lamine Yamal as pair prepare to clash in World Cup final

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The Independent

16 July 2026

Lionel Messi

and

Lamine Yamal

will clash in the

World Cup

final as

Argentina

take on

Spain

– a game that comes 19 years after the pair first encountered one another in a remarkable photoshoot when Yamal was an infant.

Messi’s

remain on track for back-to-back tournament titles

after fighting back to beat England

, setting up a meeting with an impressive Spanish team that

ended France’s bid for glory in the first semi-final.

Teenager Yamal spearheaded Spain’s charge to Euro 2024 success having stepped into Messi’s shoes as Barcelona’s most prominent star and a graduate of

La Masia

, their world-leading academy.

open image in gallery

MESSI-YAMAL FOTO (AP)

Their first encounter came while Messi was forging his record-setting career with the Catalan club, with the 20-year-old Argentine snapped in a bath alongside a baby Yamal.

The photoshoot came as part of a charity calendar made by local newspaper Diario Sport and UNICEF, with snaps from the session resurfacing after being posted on Instagram by Yamal’s father during the Euros two years ago. Yamal’s mother, Sheila Ebana, is seen next to the pair in one of the photos.

“We made the calendar with the help of Unicef. So Unicef did a raffle in the neighborhood of Roca Fonda in Mataró where Lamine’s family lived,” photographer Joan Monfort recalled in an

interview with the Associated Press.

“They signed up for the raffle to have their picture taken at the Camp Nou with a

Barca

player. And they won the raffle.

“Messi is a pretty introverted guy, he’s shy. 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.”

Lamine Yamal cradled by

(AP)

19 years on, the two left-footed,

Barcelona

favourites will battle for

glory on football’s biggest stage.

You can pinpoint the moment Messi decided he was going to send Argentina to the World Cup final

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