BARCELONA, Spain — A 2007 photograph showing Lionel Messi bathing baby Lamine Yamal has resurfaced ahead of Sunday’s FIFA World Cup final between Argentina and Spain, drawing renewed attention as the two players prepare to face each other for the first time on the sport’s biggest stage.
Photographer Joan Monfort took the photos in 2007 for a charity calendar produced by the newspaper Sport and UNICEF. The images show a teenage Messi bathing Yamal, then an infant, in a plastic tub after Yamal’s family was selected through a raffle in Mataró, near Barcelona.
Monfort said he did not think much about the photographs until Yamal’s father shared one of the images on social media during the 2024 European Championship, when the Spain forward emerged as an international star.
The photographs have gained renewed attention ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final between Messi’s Argentina and Yamal’s Spain.
“I have never been a believer or thought that anything was destined to occur, but I am beginning to have my doubts,” Monfort told The Associated Press on Friday.
Messi also commented on the photograph before the final.
“That picture, it was crazy. Him as a baby, and now we are facing each other,” Messi said in Spanish. “I just wish him the best of luck.”
Monfort said requests for the images have increased significantly as the World Cup final approaches.
Spain midfielder Mikel Merino said he initially thought the photograph had been created using artificial intelligence.
“The first time I saw it, I thought it was AI and that it wasn’t even real,” Merino said. “It’s unbelievable.”
Yamal joined Barcelona’s first team in 2023, two years after Messi left the club. The 19-year-old will face the 39-year-old Messi in Sunday’s World Cup final.
Monfort, a longtime Barcelona supporter, said he remains undecided about which team he will support in the match because of his admiration for both players.