Some photos come back with a strange kind of timing. One taken for a UNICEF charity calendar in 2007 now sits in the middle of the 2026 World Cup final, with Spain’s Lamine Yamal set to face Argentina’s Lionel Messi at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
At the charity event, Messi bathed a five month old Yamal in the away dressing room at Camp Nou. Yamal has just turned 19 and will face Messi in Sunday’s final in the United States.
The photo came from a charity calendar organised by the FC Barcelona Foundation and the newspaper Sport with UNICEF to raise money for the organisation’s programmes. Photographer Joan Monfort arranged the shoot inside the away dressing room at Camp Nou, with families from the Rocafonda neighbourhood of Mataró chosen by lottery. Yamal’s family was among them.
They were paired with Messi, who was then 20 and had already won LaLiga twice and the UEFA Champions League. Yamal, born that July in Mataró, was bathed by the player who would later become a Ballon d’Or winner.
The photograph illustrated January in the calendar published in 2008 and then sat largely unnoticed for almost two decades.
The link between the two goes beyond that image. Messi joined Barcelona in 2000 at 13 and made his first team debut at 17 in the number 30 shirt. Yamal entered La Masia at seven and made his debut at 15, becoming the youngest player of the 21st century to play for Barcelona.
Yamal also inherited Barcelona’s number 10 shirt, the one Messi wore for almost two decades.
Spain reached the final after a 2-0 win over France in Arlington. Mikel Oyarzabal scored a penalty awarded after a foul on Yamal, and Pedro Porro added the second.
Argentina had a tougher semi-final. England led through Anthony Gordon, before Argentina came from behind to win with goals from Enzo Fernández in the 85th minute and Lautaro Martínez in added time.
The match will be the first World Cup final between two Spanish-speaking national teams since 1930.
Messi turned 39 during the tournament and is playing in his third World Cup final, after losing to Germany in 2014 and beating France on penalties in 2022. Yamal celebrated his 19th birthday on 13 July and is playing in his first final.
Shown the bath photo again by DAZN, Yamal said: “I have grown a little, and Leo has too”.
He also said he had been waiting a long time for this meeting, one that the Finalissima had not given him.
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