When Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal walk onto the pitch for the FIFA World Cup final on Sunday, July 19, it will be much more than a clash between two football stars from different generations. 

Seventeen years ago, the two shared a moment that nobody thought would become part of football history. Back in 2007, a young Messi posed for a charity photoshoot with a five-month-old baby named Lamine Yamal. Today, that same baby is one of football’s brightest young stars and is set to face Messi in the biggest match of them all.

It all started with a Barcelona charity campaign 

In 2007, FC Barcelona organised a charity raffle for families living around Barcelona. The winners got the chance to have a professional photoshoot with one of the club’s players.

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The photographs were used for a calendar to raise money for UNICEF, the children’s humanitarian organisation whose logo appeared on the front of Barcelona’s jerseys at the time.

Yamal’s family won the raffle and were paired with a 20-year-old Lionel Messi, who was only beginning to make his name at the club. 

Instead of posing for a regular photograph, the shoot featured baby Yamal sitting in a small plastic bathtub while Messi gently pretended to bathe him. The pictures would later become some of the most famous images in football. 

Messi was shy during the photoshoot 

The session was photographed by Joan Monfort, who later recalled that Messi looked completely out of his comfort zone. “Messi is a pretty introverted guy; he’s shy,” Monfort told the Associated Press in 2024.

“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. He didn’t even know how to hold him at first.” 

At the time, it was simply another charity event. No one imagined that both the footballer and the baby in the picture would one day become global stars. 

The photographs remained largely forgotten until the 2024 European Championship.

During the tournament, Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, shared one of the old pictures on social media with the caption, “The beginning of two legends.”

The post quickly went viral. Soon, the complete set of photographs was being shared around the world.

By the time the photos resurfaced, Yamal had already made his senior debut for Barcelona before turning 16.

But Euro 2024 turned him into a global name. The teenage winger became the youngest goalscorer in European Championship history and played a key role as Spain lifted the title.

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‘Destiny plays an important role’ 

Looking back at the photoshoot, Monfort admitted that nobody could have predicted what the future had in store.

“It’s something incredible. Back then, nobody could imagine that this baby would be who he is now, and you could not have known that Messi would become who he became, either. We are talking about 2007. Messi was only beginning at Barca then. Destiny plays an important role in these things,” he told The Athletic in July 2024.

After Spain defeated France in the World Cup semifinal, Yamal was shown the now-famous baby bathtub photograph once again.

Smiling, the young star was asked about facing Messi in the final. “I hope to face him in a final,” he said. Just days later, that wish came true.

On Sunday, Messi and Yamal will stand on opposite sides in the FIFA World Cup final.

One is widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers the game has ever seen. The other is the teenage sensation many believe will shape football’s next era.