Lamine Yamal’s meteoric rise continues as the Barcelona sensation can add the World Cup to his Euros triumph at just 19, but Argentina and Lionel Messi, who “blessed” him as a baby, stand in his way
Spain and Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal can write himself in the history books by winning the World Cup as a European champion at just 19, but Argentina and Lionel Messi stand in his way.
The teenager firmly landed on the big stage at Euro 2024 as the La Masia academy graduate shattered multiple records at the competition after becoming the youngest player to appear in the tournament’s history at just 16 years and 338 days.
Yamal will now be looking to clinch both major international tournaments on offer to him when he steps onto the pitch against Argentina on Sunday. The Barca star has slowly been getting up to speed at the tournament after coming into the World Cup carrying an injury, but he was back to his shining best in Spain’s semi-final win over France. While Messi ran the show in the final 20 minutes against England as he unpicked Thomas Tuchel’s low block setup.
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The two have never played against each other but that will change on Sunday; however, the two were previously well acquainted, despite neither probably knowing so.
Nearly 20 years ago, the Argentine striker participated in the photoshoot with Spanish publication Diario Sport to generate funds for charities including UNICEF. During the session, the future World Cup champion, who was just 20 years old at the time, held the baby Yamal and even washed him as part of the collection of images captured by Joan Monfort.
Of course, what Messi could never have anticipated was that the youngster would eventually go on to represent Barcelona as well – before becoming an international sensation. But supporters believe a man renowned for his exceptional vision on the football pitch demonstrated the same abilities off it by “blessing” Yamal.
One fan wrote on X about how other children would be jealous they weren’t “blessed” by the superstar. And a third remarked: “Messi holding baby Yamal. The guy was blessed by the OG from young , special things to come..”
After taking the photographs, Monfort looked back on how the pictures initially came about, as he told the Athletic: “It was a difficult photo to take. 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,” he went on, describing the scene which unfolded. “And with his mother. 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.”
Describing the response after the photographs finally went viral following Yamal’s father sharing them on social media, Monfort said: “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 continued: “It’s a one-in-a-million chance that this could happen. It’s such good fortune. These days, it happens a bit more as people have their phones and share photos, but this is like the photo of [Pep] Guardiola as a kid applauding Terry Venables being carried on players’ shoulders. When Venables died, Pep posted the image.”