When Messi met Yamal: The master and apprentice story behind the World Cup final

Some photos age badly, others evoke nostalgia, and a few, a very few, become the prophecy of a fortune-teller nobody believes. The one of Leo Messi bathing a five‑month‑old baby in the away dressing room at Camp Nou belongs to the third category.

That baby was (and still is) called Lamine Yamal and this Sunday, having just turned 19, he will come up against Messi in the World Cup final in the United States. The image that might have been just a fond memory on his parents’ bedside table has become the prologue to a final that no one could ever have written on purpose.

The stroke of luck that captured destiny

The photo did not come from a marketing whim, but from a charity calendar that the FC Barcelona Foundation and the newspaper ‘Sport’ organised together with UNICEF to raise money for the organisation’s programmes.

Photographer Joan Monfort set up the shoot inside the away dressing room at Camp Nou, with families drawn by lottery in the Rocafonda neighbourhood of Mataró, where Yamal’s family lived. They were matched with Messi, who was then 20 years old and had already won LaLiga twice and the UEFA Champions League.

The baby, born that same July in the same city, ended up being bathed by the future Ballon d’Or winner. The photograph was used to illustrate the month of January in the calendar published in 2008, and there it stayed, dormant, for almost two decades.

La Masia’s mirror

The fact that the two would go on to share a dressing room is not entirely a matter of chance. Both came through the same production line that has already yielded names such as Xavi, Iniesta and Carles Puyol. Messi joined Barça in 2000 at the age of 13 and made his first‑team debut at 17, wearing the number 30; Yamal entered the academy at just seven and debuted at 15, the youngest player of the 21st century to pull on the Barça shirt.

And in case the symbolism was not enough, Yamal inherited the iconic number 10 shirt that Messi paraded across Europe and made his own for almost two decades. It is the age‑old story of master and apprentice, of the hero who, without knowing it, trains the man he will one day have to face. Yamal grew up looking into a mirror he did not even know existed.

Sunday, MetLife Stadium: the chapter nobody foresaw in 2007

Spain reached the final in relatively comfortable fashion after beating France 2‑0 in Arlington, with a penalty converted by Oyarzabal, awarded after a foul on Yamal himself, and a second goal from Pedro Porro.

Messi’s Argentina, with the Rosario‑born forward as captain, had to suffer more: England went ahead through a goal by Anthony Gordon and the Albiceleste had to come from behind again, equalising in the 85th minute and scoring the winner in added time, with goals from Enzo Fernández and Lautaro Martínez. The result produces the first World Cup final between two Spanish‑speaking national teams since 1930.

For Messi, who turned 39 during the tournament, this is his third World Cup final, after defeat to Germany in 2014 and the title against France in 2022 on penalties, and he is looking to defend his crown and lift the trophy again. For Yamal, who blew out the candles on a cake marked with the number 19 on 13 July, it is his first.

Asked by ‘DAZN’ as he was shown the bath photo again, Yamal did not hesitate: “I have grown a little, and Leo has too”, he said, before admitting that he had long been waiting for this meeting, something that the ‘Finalissima’ (a tournament reserved for the continental champions of UEFA and CONMEBOL) had not offered him. That bathtub at Camp Nou only had room for one. MetLife Stadium on Sunday will have room for both, although only one will walk away with the trophy.