The remarkable Messi and Lamine Yamal photos showing 'the beginning of two legends'
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- Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal meet competitively for the first time when Argentina face Spain in Sunday's World Cup final in New Jersey, separated in age by two decades according to the source.
- The pair first met in 2007 at a charity photoshoot organized by Catalan newspaper Sport and Unicef, when Messi was 20 and Yamal was six months old, and Yamal's family had won the chance to have their baby pictured with a Barcelona star.
- Photographer Joan Monfort captured the 2007 meeting; one image went viral after Yamal's father Mounir Nasraoui posted it on Instagram during Spain's Euro 2024 triumph with the caption 'the beginning of two legends.'
- Monfort told Sky Sports that 20-year-old Messi was 'a very shy boy, very introverted' and took a while to interact with the six-month-old Yamal before warming up during the shoot.
- Messi has scored 8 goals and assisted 2 more at the tournament — including the semi-final win over England — and is expected to make his final World Cup appearance on Sunday.
- Lamine Yamal now occupies Messi's old position at Barcelona and stands in the way of Argentina retaining the title they won at the previous World Cup.
Why it matters: With Messi at one end of his career and Yamal at the other — separated by two decades — the 2007 charity photo frames Sunday's final as a literal passing-of-the-torch moment between the established great and his heir at Barcelona. Messi enters with 8 goals and 2 assists this tournament in what is expected to be his final World Cup appearance, giving the photoshoot-to-pitch arc concrete competitive stakes.
