September 2007, Camp Nou locker rooms. A 20-year-old Messi, shy and not quite sure what to do, holds a baby barely six months old in his arms. It is Lamine Yamal. The scene is part of a charity calendar by the newspaper Sport, the FC Barcelona Foundation and UNICEF, and Yamal’s family got there through a draw. 🍼
A rubber duck saved the moment when Messi did not know how to hold him. No one in that room imagined what was to come. The photo remained stored away for almost 17 years, until in 2024 Lamine’s own father, Mounir Nasraoui, posted it with a phrase that now sounds prophetic: “the beginning of two legends”. 👀
This Sunday, July 19, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Argentina and Spain will play for the 2026 World Cup final. Messi, Argentina’s captain. Yamal, Spain’s standout star. The baby he bathed is now his rival on the most important pitch on the planet. ⚽🐐