Lionel Messi faces Spain’s teen prodigy in the World Cup final – 19 years after their first extraordinary encounter. In 2007, the parents of Spain’s Lamine Yamal won a competition to meet a Barcelona player when their son was only five months old. And the player in question was Messi, then 20 and a rising star of the team and Argentina, who defeated England in the 2026 World Cup semi-final.
Joan Monfort documented the meeting in a series of photographs. They resurfaced two years ago, when Yamal helped Spain win Euro 2024, as his father posted one online with the caption “The beginning of two legends”. In the photos, a smiling Messi is cradling and bathing a tiny baby boy who would inexplicably follow so closely in his footballing footsteps.Get The Full Story Here.
