Topps to release 1-of-1 card of Messi, baby Yamal
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- Topps announced a 1-of-1 trading card featuring the photo of Lionel Messi cradling Lamine Yamal as an infant, to be inserted into Topps Stadium Club UCC boxes later this year.
- The original photo was taken during a UNICEF fundraising drive two years ago, when Messi was at Barcelona and Yamal was a baby — long before both played in a World Cup.
- The two players met again as opponents in Sunday's 2026 World Cup final, where Yamal's Spain beat Messi's Argentina 1-0 in what the article frames as a potential changing of the guard, with 39-year-old Messi likely playing his last and 19-year-old Yamal his first.
- "That photo is incredible. I took a picture with him when he was a baby. The fact that we're both playing in the World Cup now is crazy," Messi said Friday before the final.
- After the tournament, Yamal returns to training for Barcelona ahead of the 2026-27 LaLiga season while Messi rejoins Inter Miami CF as MLS play resumes following the FIFA break.
Why it matters: A 1-of-1 insert is Topps' highest-rarity hit, and timing it to the most talked-about feel-good moment of the 2026 World Cup cycle gives collectors a chase card tied to a generational passing-of-the-torch storyline. For Messi, 39, it also functions as a career keepsake pinned to the teenager Barcelona and Spain are already billing as his heir apparent.
