A Generational Handover Reaches the World Cup Stage
Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal will share the same pitch for the first time when Argentina face Spain in Sunday’s World Cup final, closing a circle that began when the younger man was an infant. Messi, now 39, and Yamal, just 19, meet in the sport’s biggest fixture despite an age gap that spans almost two decades. The encounter completes a story documented in photographs taken in 2007, when a 20-year-old Messi had recently become a regular at Barcelona and Yamal was five months old.
The Camp Nou Photographs
Photographer Joan Monfort captured Messi cradling and bathing the baby Yamal in the away dressing room at Barcelona’s Camp Nou. Yamal’s parents, Mounir Nasraoui and Sheila Ebana, had won a raffle run by Catalan newspaper Sport with Barcelona shirt sponsor and Unicef, offering random families professional photos of their baby with a first-team player. The family was paired with Messi by chance on the day they arrived.
“It is a true miracle of destiny,” Monfort says. “It is serendipity – when you find something extra special, so much bigger than you ever thought. If you wrote this in a film it would not seem possible.” Monfort had no idea which child he had photographed until 2024, when a friend told him Yamal’s father had posted the image to Instagram after Spain won Euro 2024.
Messi was then a shy 20-year-old wearing number 19, a year before inheriting the number 10 from Ronaldinho. “Messi is a really introverted guy, very timid and shy,” Monfort explains. “He came into the dressing room and suddenly had to take these photos with a little baby – not even a kid, a proper baby and his face changed like he had no idea what to do!” Monfort noted Messi adapted quickly and remained a professional throughout.
From Rocafonda to the Final
Yamal grew up in Rocafonda, a working-class neighbourhood in Mataro built in the 1960s for Spanish migrants and later home to arrivals from abroad. His full name is Lamine Yamal Naraoui Ebana, with the first two names worn on his shirt as homage to friends who helped his family pay bills when money was tight. He celebrates goals with a 3-0-4 gesture referencing Rocafonda’s postcode.
“What my mother has done, what my father has done, I couldn’t have done that for anyone who is not my child,” Yamal told El Pais earlier in the tournament. “If you don’t have money, it’s very hard to help your child play football. And my parents managed to make all that happen. It’s something I’ll never be able to repay them for.” By his 19th birthday, Yamal had scored 56 career goals and won La Liga three times, the Copa del Rey once, and Euro 2024.
Messi had scored 11 career goals by the same age and owned one La Liga title and one Champions League. Messi left Barcelona for Paris St-Germain in 2021, two years before Yamal debuted at 15, and Yamal inherited the number 10 shirt in 2025.
A Story’s Closing Chapter
The photograph became a banner for Spain fans at Euro 2024 and the World Cup. Monfort, now 58 and a Barcelona supporter, sees the final as the perfect ending. “I think we are closing the cycle of their story,” he says. “It is a happy end. I am a fan of Barcelona, and I think for Messi it’s perfect if he can finish his career winning the World Cup for the second time. I think he deserves it.”
Monfort believes a win would mean more for Yamal than his earlier trophies, while admitting divided loyalty. “For Lamine he has a lot of time to win trophies like the World Cup. But Spain and Lamine are arriving in a good moment and if he wins it now, it would be worth more than his other titles. It is very difficult for me. My heart is breaking in two pieces.”