Messi bathed baby Yamal in 2007 — now they meet in the World Cup final

Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal are set to face each other in the 2026 World Cup final — 19 years after their first, entirely improbable meeting, when Messi cradled and bathed a five-month-old Yamal in the away dressing room at Camp Nou.

In 2007, Yamal’s parents, Mounir Nasraoui and Sheila Ebana, entered a raffle run by Catalan newspaper Sport in conjunction with Barcelona shirt sponsor and children’s charity Unicef. Families selected at random would have professional photographs taken of their baby with a Barcelona first-team player. When the Yamal family arrived, they were paired with Messi — then 20 and already a rising force at the club — entirely by chance.

Photographer Joan Monfort documented the session. The images resurfaced two years ago when Yamal helped Spain win Euro 2024, after his father posted one online with the caption: “The beginning of two legends.”

“It is a true miracle of destiny,” Monfort said. “It is serendipity — when you find something extra special, so much bigger than you ever thought. If you wrote this in a film it would not seem possible.”

Monfort recalled that Messi, characteristically reserved, was visibly uncertain when presented with a newborn rather than a toddler. “He came into the dressing room and suddenly had to take these photos with a little baby — not even a kid, a proper baby — and his face changed like he had no idea what to do,” Monfort said. “But Messi was always a professional in these kinds of things and he adapted to the situation very quickly.”

Monfort added that he had no idea the baby in the photographs was Yamal until a friend alerted him in 2024, after Nasraoui shared the image on Instagram.

At the time of the photoshoot, Messi still wore the number 19 shirt for Barcelona, only inheriting the iconic number 10 a year later when Ronaldinho left the club. By his 19th birthday, Messi had scored 11 career goals and won La Liga and the UEFA Champions League once each.

Yamal, who turned 19 on Monday, has already accumulated 56 goals, three La Liga titles, and a Copa del Rey — a statistical head-start that underlines just how rapidly the teenager has arrived on the world stage. Argentina defeated England in the semi-final to set up the final showdown, ensuring the two players photographed together in that Barcelona dressing room nearly two decades ago will now contest the sport’s biggest prize.