Playing Lamine Yamal Is the Fairytale Ending to Lionel Messi’s World Cup Career

ATLANTA — When Lionel Messi takes the pitch in the 2026 World Cup final, it could very well be the 39-year-old’s final time in an Argentinian jersey. Yet, the match won’t only be an ode to the storied past of soccer’s greatest-ever player on the international stage. It will also be a celebration of the sport’s promising future.

Argentina will face Spain on July 19 at MetLife Stadium, meaning Messi will meet his rightful heir to the throne, 19-year-old Spanish prodigy Lamine Yamal, on the pitch for the first time ever. For fans all over the world, the sport’s most prestigious match will serve as the coronation, an opportunity to bid farewell to King Messi while ushering Prince Yamal under the brightest spotlight. From one G.O.A.T. to the next, it will signify the ultimate continuation of the beautiful game via its most supreme match.

“It is poetic,” Argentina fan Sirj tells Sports Illustrated. “It’s full circle, the hand-off from the greatest of all time to potentially the greatest of all time.”

“A storybook finish for Messi’s career,” Argentina fan Tokul adds.

Although the final will signify the first time Messi and Yamal meet on the field, the pair actually crossed paths many years ago when Yamal was just seven months old, a chance—or perhaps fated—encounter that many believe made Yamal’s succession inevitable.

In 2007, Messi, 20 years old at the time, was tapped by his club Barcelona to participate in a charity photoshoot at Camp Nou, taking pictures for a calendar to raise funds for UNICEF and for the Barça Foundation childhood protection programs. The six-month-old Catalan baby in the bath that Messi was photographed with was none other than Yamal.

In 2007, a 20-year-old Lionel Messi was pictured bathing a baby for a Barça-UNICEF charity campaign—that baby, Lamine Yamal, is now a rising football star. pic.twitter.com/wCbjWHCEm5
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) July 16, 2025

“UNICEF did a raffle in the neighborhood of Rocafonda in Mataró where Lamine’s family lived,” the charity photoshoot photographer, Joan Monfort, said in 2025. “They signed up for the raffle to have their picture taken at the Camp Nou with a Barça player. And they won the raffle.

"Messi didn’t even know how to hold him at first. Messi is a pretty introverted guy, he’s shy. He was coming out of the locker room and suddenly he finds himself in another locker room with a plastic tub full of water and a baby in it. It was complicated.

“For Lamine to grow up to be a footballer, and to have this photo, I’m just really happy it happened. It’s especially nice in today’s football.”

Many fans considered that encounter to be a symbolic “soccer baptism,” foreshadowing the crown Messi would one day place on Yamal’s head. Nearly 20 years later, it seems that day has finally arrived.

Like Looking in a Mirror

Lamine Yamal is now the star of FC Barcelona. | Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

Yamal has already succeeded Messi at Barcelona.

The Spanish club is where Messi rose through the ranks from age 13 and ultimately to unparalleled stardom. He played 17 seasons at Camp Nou, often at right wing, especially during the famous “MSN” era, which featured an attacking line of Messi, Neymar Jr and Luis Suárez. The left-footed legend won 10 La Liga and four UEFA Champions League titles in that span and established himself as one of the greatest of players of all time. The first seven of Messi’s eight Ballon d’Or wins came during his time in Catalonia.

The famous star donning the iconic No. 10 jersey departed Barça for Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, and less than two years later, the team’s new talisman emerged. Also a left-footed right winger, Yamal, who rose through Barça’s youth ranks from age 7, made his first team debut in April 2023 at just 15 years old in a 4–0 win against Real Betis, becoming the youngest player ever to represent the club.

He soared from there, setting records left and right. He officially received the club’s No. 10 jersey last summer, just after his 18th birthday. While donning the iconic number, he scored 16 league goals last season—a tally unrivaled by any of his teammates—while boasting a division-high 11 assists, which helped Barcelona to their second consecutive La Liga title.

Both Messi and Yamal rely on their elite ability to read the pitch and the magnets that seemingly keep the ball stuck to their feet, exploiting defenders with swift moves to break through the final third.

“There is so much magic to the way both of them handle the ball, dribble, just the way they move,” Argentina fan Zoltan says. “Watching Messi with the skill that he has on the ball and the way that he moves is so beautiful to watch, and I see that in Yamal. Even if this is Messi’s last tournament, the future is amazing for football in the world.”

Adds Sirj: “Yamal has this calmness about him that Messi has. He reminds me a lot of Messi in that regard. The cool calmness, the hunger, the drive, the assertiveness that both of them have is unparalleled.”

Lamine Yamal to Stand Alone

lamine yamal face close up — Lamine Yamal has been plagued with a hamstring injury. | Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

Although Yamal has been open about his long-held reverence for Messi, the teenager is also eager to set himself apart.

“My goal isn’t to be compared to [the likes of Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar]; it’s to be mentioned alongside them,” Yamal said before the tournament kicked off. “So ... my name will be in that group.”

The 2025 Ballon d’Or runner-up is still recovering from a hamstring injury that he suffered in April and has been unable to reach full potential this summer. Nevertheless, he is well on his way to carving out his own identity.

Despite scoring just one goal thus far in his World Cup debut, he has still been a significant reason for Spain’s advancement to the World Cup final. He has been an imposing threat down the wing, often forcing defenses to overcompensate on his flank. Most recently, it was his play on the ball that earned the penalty kick that opened Spain’s scoring against France in Tuesday’s semifinal, a subsequent 2–0 win. Messi may have an astonishing eight goals and four assists this summer, but unlike Yamal, he didn’t reach a World Cup final until he was 27, at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Messi has every faith in Yamal too. “There is a new generation of footballers who are very good and who have many years ahead of them, but if I have to choose one because of age, for what he has done so far and for the future he may have, it is Lamine,” Messi said in May. “There’s no doubt, for me, he’s the best.”

As the soccer legend takes what is likely his final bow on the international stage on Sunday, Yamal will finally have his chance to stand alone, as the new King of Soccer.

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