For weeks, World Cup fans have been abuzz about the now-iconic, throwback photos of Argentina star Lionel Messi bathing a baby Lamine Yamal, who’s now one of the best players from Spain. With the two now slated to face off on the pitch at the upcoming World Cup finals on July 19, as their countries vie for the championship, Messi recently addressed the remarkable snaps.
Speaking in front of a crowd at Fanatics Fest in New York City on July 17, Lionel Messi described the photos, taken in 2007 by photographer Joan Monfort as part of a charity calendar, as “crazy.”
“That photo is crazy because, well, it’s life,” Messi, speaking in Spanish, told NFL legend Tom Brady during the event. “I had a photo with him when he was a baby and for us to be facing each other in the World Cup. … It’s craziness.”
Messi marveled at the snaps, calling the 19-year-old Yamal “one of the best in the world at the moment, without a doubt.”
In the photos, which Messi took while on his then-club FC Barcelona, a soapy Yamal is just a couple months old. At the time, Messi, now a soccer legend, was a 20-year-old up-and-comer, making a name for himself with the club.
Monfort recalled to the Associated Press in 2024 that the shoot had been organized by humanitarian aid organization UNICEF in partnership with local Barcelona sports outlet Diario Sport.
Monfort explained to the outlet that the organization had hosted a raffle, inviting those in the Rocafonda neighborhood in the Spanish city of Mataró to enter for a chance to have their picture taken at the iconic FC Barcelona stadium Camp Nou with a player. Yamal’s family just so happened to have won, Monfort said.
Coincidentally, Yamal would go on to debut with FC Barcelona in 2023 and today, he’s heralded as one of the most electrifying stars that the club has ever had.
At Fanatics Fest, Messi, now 39, expressed his admiration for both FC Barcelona and Yamal.
“Lamine is a huge player in which I follow a lot because he plays for a team that I love and I wish him always the best,” Messi said.
Describing Yamal as “one of the leaders worldwide at 19 years of age,” Messi acknowledged that the World Cup finals could prove to be one of the biggest moments in not only the young player’s life but also in soccer history.
“He has his whole career ahead of him,” Messi said. “He has a great opportunity to attain something historic — which we intend to give our maximum so that it doesn’t happen this time.”
For soccer fans, the photo has become proof of a cosmic connection between the two players. For starters, Yamal and Messi, along with their respective teams, have been competing on opposite sides of the World Cup bracket for the six-week tournament. The only way they would’ve met on the pitch is at the finals — something that will evidently come to pass following Spain’s defeat of France 2-0 in the semifinals on July 14.
Similarities abound between the two players as well. And Yamal has been recognized as somewhat of a successor to the Argentinian soccer icon in Barcelona. Fans and players alike say the rising star has restored some of the dominant energy that Messi once established at the club. Many have joked that through the photoshoot, Messi passed on some of his “sacred” soccer prowess to Yamal.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
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