Lionel Messi once gave Lamine Yamal a bath.
It is one of football’s strangest stories.
Now, nearly two decades later, they will meet in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final with the biggest prize in the sport on the line.
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Reigning world champions Argentina booked their place in Monday’s decider with a 2-1 victory over England, setting up a blockbuster clash with Spain and a generational showdown between 39-year-old Lionel Messi and 19-year-old sensation Lamine Yamal.
For most, it will be the first time the two have shared a football pitch.
In reality, their story began nearly 19 years ago, according to ESPN.
Back in the autumn of 2007, Messi was a 20-year-old rising star at Barcelona when he took part in a charity calendar organised by Catalan newspaper Diario Sport in conjunction with UNICEF.
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Families from across Catalonia entered a raffle for the chance to have their child photographed with a Barcelona player. One of the lucky winners was Yamal’s family.
That draw produced one of the most extraordinary photographs in football history.
The now-iconic images show Messi carefully holding and bathing a six-month-old Yamal in a small plastic tub inside Barcelona’s dressing room at Camp Nou.
At the time, it was simply another charity photo shoot.
Years later, it became one of football’s most remarkable pieces of folklore.
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The images resurfaced during Spain’s triumphant UEFA Euro 2024 campaign after Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, posted one of the photographs on Instagram alongside the caption: “The beginning of two legends.”
Photographer Joan Monfort, who captured the moment, admitted nobody involved had any idea of the history they were accidentally documenting.
“We made the calendar with the help of UNICEF,” Monfort told The Associated Press in 2024.
“So UNICEF did a raffle in the neighbourhood of Roca Fonda in Mataró, where Lamine’s family lived.
“They signed up for the raffle to have their picture taken at the Camp Nou with a Barça player. And they won the raffle.”
Even the photo shoot itself wasn’t without its challenges.
“The stars aligned when Lamine met Messi, but it was very difficult,” Monfort said.
“Messi is very introverted and shy. He entered the changing room to find a plastic bathtub filled with water and a baby inside. In the beginning he did not know how to hold Lamine.”
At the time, Messi probably thought it was just another promotional appearance.
Instead, he unknowingly became part of one of football’s greatest full-circle moments.
Yamal has since enjoyed a rise few players in history can match.
He made his Barcelona debut at just 15 years, nine months and 16 days, has already won three LaLiga titles, helped Spain lift the UEFA Euro 2024 trophy and established himself as one of the world’s best players before turning 20.
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Now, with many viewing him as Messi’s heir apparent, the pair are set to meet on football’s grandest stage with the World Cup on the line.
For Messi, it is another opportunity to add one final chapter to an already unmatched career.
For Yamal, it is the chance to prove that football’s next era has truly arrived.
And in one of the sport’s strangest twists of fate, the baby once cradled in Messi’s arms now stands between the Argentine legend and one more World Cup trophy.