'A true miracle of destiny' - Messi and Yamal's incredible first meeting
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- Photographer Joan Monfort captured 20-year-old Messi cradling five-month-old Yamal in Barcelona's Camp Nou away dressing room during a 2007 charity raffle organized by Catalan newspaper Sport and Unicef.
- Monfort didn't realize the baby was Yamal until 2024, when Yamal's father posted the photo on Instagram captioned "The beginning of two legends" after Spain won Euro 2024.
- Yamal, who turned 19 on Monday, has scored 56 career goals and won three La Liga titles, one Copa del Rey, and Euro 2024 — surpassing Messi's tally at the same age of 11 goals, one La Liga, and one Champions League.
- Yamal's full name — Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana — honors two friends who helped his Moroccan-born father Mounir Nasraoui and Equatorial Guinean mother Sheila Ebana pay bills when the family had little money.
- Yamal grew up in Rocafonda, a working-class Mataro neighborhood 20 miles north of Barcelona, and celebrates goals with a 3-0-4 finger gesture referencing his postcode.
- Messi and Yamal meet on the pitch for the first time when Argentina face Spain in Sunday's World Cup final — Messi at 39, Yamal at 19, in what is likely the former's last World Cup.
Why it matters: The World Cup final's narrative was written 18 years ago, when a charity raffle paired Messi with the baby who would become his Barcelona successor. Sunday's match is almost certainly Messi's last World Cup and Yamal's first, giving the meeting a closure that no script could plausibly invent.
