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How Lionel Messi Ended Up Bathing a Baby Lamine Yamal

Messi finally offered up his view on an almost impossible quirk of fate before the pair face off in the 2026 World Cup final.
Grey Whitebloom|
Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal were paired together by a “one in a billion” twist of faith.
Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal were paired together by a “one in a billion” twist of faith. | Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images

“One in a billion,” “pre-ordained,” “unbelievable.” There has been a long list of adjectives used to describe the quirk of fate which saw Lionel Messi pictured with a baby Lamine Yamal almost two decades before the pair would face off in the World Cup final. Messi himself opted for “crazy.”

“As someone who likes to think of myself as technologically fluent and able to spot AI versus a real image, I thought that the image of Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal was AI,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani admitted.

That cynicism is to be expected in a world littered with so much digital deception. Even the series of photos in question have been subjected to a slew of face swaps since they once again reemerged. Yet, the originals are very much authentic, however outrageous the coincidence may be.

The Story Behind Messi and Yamal’s Photoshoot

The Catalan sports daily Diario SPORT set about putting together a calendar for Barcelona in coordination with the global charity UNICEF, whose name adorned the front of the club’s shirts at the time, at the start of the century. The SPORT journalist Joan Vehils was tasked with organizing the logistics of the photoshoot at the end of 2007, while Barcelona supplied the players and UNICEF selected the children who would be paired with each soccer player with a random raffle.

There were 12 shoots but the one for January 2008 has reached newfound fame. By a stroke of pure chance, Messi was paired with a baby from Rocafonda who just so happened to grow up and assume his status as Barcelona’s next great No. 10.

The photographer Joan Monfort recalled a testing process. “It was a difficult shot,” he told The Athletic. “We can say I sweated some blood to take it.

“Lionel Messi is still shy now. He was much more shy when he was starting out, and he finds himself there with a tiny baby in a plastic bath full of water. At the start, there was not much interaction. It was difficult for all of them. But, bit by bit, it started to happen and in the end, it’s a pretty good photo.”

Monfort credited Yamal’s mother, Sheila Ebana, for helping put the pair at ease. “The mother helped a lot,” the photographer explained. “Her presence was super necessary, so the baby did not feel it was too strange. You look for a tender image—something sweet and nice.”

There is a different theme for each month of the 2008 calendar; Carles Puyol is playing tug-of-war, Ronaldinho is crouched over a basketball, Thierry Henry is giggling away while having a syringe of water fired at hime. For Messi and Yamal, Monfort had chosen a plastic bath tub and brought a rubber duck his own daughter, Jana, used at home.

When the photograph first came to light, Monfort’s phone didn’t stop ringing. “He’s very discrete,” Jana Monfort said of her father in an interview with CNN. “He’s actually not enjoying it. Well, maybe for a few days. But afterwards he’s just like, not that kind of person.” Monfort has Yamal’s father to thank for the spotlight.

How Messi and Yamal Picture Resurfaced

While Messi, Barcelona and the photographer Monfort all had no idea Yamal had already met his preordained predecessor, his father Mounir Nasraoui had been sitting on the image for years. Nasraoui waited until the day before his teenage son took on host nation Germany in the 2024 European Championship quarterfinal before bringing the image into the public sphere with a simple Instagram post: “The beginning of two legends.”

Many have interpreted the image as Messi transferring his brilliance to Yamal, some sort of soccer baptism. But Nasraoui, in typically forthright fashion, questioned whether it wasn’t the other way around.

“Maybe Lamine was giving it to Leo, I don’t know,” Yamal’s father argued. “For me, my son is the best. In everything.”

At the time of the photoshoot in late 2007, Messi was considered one of soccer’s brightest talents and would finish third in that year’s Ballon d’Or vote. Admittedly, all eight of the occasions in which he was voted the best player in the world came after giving Yamal a bath.

Messi Breaks Silence on ‘Crazy’ Picture

Up until the eve of the 2026 World Cup final, Messi had not yet been drawn into a public appraisal of this photoshoot. When pushed for a reaction by Tom Brady on a stage in New York two days before the final, Argentina’s captain admitted: “Honestly, that photo of us is crazy, because—well, that’s life, right? I took a photo with him as a baby, and here we both are, facing off in a World Cup.”

The pair will be foes at MetLife Stadium on Sunday but the affection runs deep. “Lamine is a huge talent, someone I’ve followed a lot because he plays for a club I love and I always wish him the best, I always want the best for him,” Messi gushed, talking above the chants of an impatient crowd waiting for the translation of his Spanish.

“And, well, he’s one of the world’s benchmark players at 19 years old, and he has his whole career ahead of him. He has a great opportunity to achieve something historic, which we’ll try our hardest to make sure doesn’t happen this time. I just want to wish him the best.

“It’s crazy. He’s one of the best in the world right now, no doubt about it. And I wish him a lot of luck, because what’s good for him will also be good for Barcelona.”

What Yamal Thinks of Messi Coincidence

lamine yamal face close up
Lamine Yamal is aiming for his first World Cup trophy. | Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

“The truth is I’m surprised because Messi is holding me in his arms, and I’m not even looking at him,” Yamal laughed when quizzed on this picture last year. “I don’t know what I was doing, but I’m very happy to have the photo with the best player in history.”

Yamal has since admitted that the pair have both “grown” a bit since that picture, while rejecting the sentiment that he has to follow the exact footsteps trodden by Messi.

“We both know I don’t want to be Messi, and Messi knows I don’t want to be him. I want to follow my own path, and that’s it.” Almost impossibly, that path has taken Yamal right back to Messi.

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Grey Whitebloom
GREY WHITEBLOOM

Grey Whitebloom is an Associate Editor for SI FC. He has more than half a decade of experience in sports media across all its various guises, from the fast-paced demands of news articles and match reports to in-depth research required for features. Whitebloom graduated with a First Class Honours from University College London and found himself named on the Dean’s List—which, despite his initial fears, was a form of praise rather than a punishment. He specialises in the Premier League and Champions League, while also boasting an extensive track record of La Liga coverage.

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