{"id":5121,"date":"2026-07-17T10:36:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5121"},"modified":"2026-07-17T10:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:36:21","slug":"twenty-years-ago-lionel-messi-was-photographed-with-a-baby-who-grew-up-to-face-him-in-a-world-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5121","title":{"rendered":"Twenty years ago, Lionel Messi was photographed with a baby \u2026 who grew up to face him in a World Cup final"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a world of AI images and online hoaxes, it\u2019s a little hard to believe the photos are real.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more We are Boston, and we did stop worrying and just enjoyed the World Cup \u2026 and other thoughts<\/a><\/p>\n

But there sits a 20-year-old Lionel Messi, not yet quite the global sensation he\u2019d become in the following years, bathing Lamine Yamal \u2014 all of five months old and so far from his own path to soccer stardom. <\/span><\/p>\n

The photos first went viral in 2024 when Yamal\u2019s father posted one on social media. They resurfaced this week, with Messi\u2019s Argentina and Yamal\u2019s Spain set to meet in Sunday\u2019s World Cup final.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Nineteen years after they were taken, with Yamal becoming one of the biggest stars in soccer and inheriting Messi\u2019s mantel as the cornerstone player for Spanish club Barcelona, people still can\u2019t quite believe what they\u2019re seeing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a one-in-a-million chance that this could happen,\u201d photographer Joan Monfort told The Athletic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Monfort snapped the photos in December 2007 for an annual charity calendar Barcelona released alongside newspaper Diario Sport. Every year, Barcelona players posed for photographs with children, most of which were only remembered by the families.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe objective was to give visibility to a series of social problems faced by kids and their families,\u201d Monfort told ESPN. \u201cIt was coming up to Christmas, and we wanted to transmit humanity, both through the kids and the players. We tried to find a way of them interacting, laughing, as relaxed as possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a difficult shot to get, as Monfort tells it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLionel Messi is still shy now,\u201d he told The Athletic. \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But with a little help from the baby\u2019s mother, Monfort managed to pull it off. He had no idea that the pairing \u2014 Messi, a blossoming superstar, and Yamal, the infant child of two teenage parents from just outside Barcelona \u2014 was sprinkled with more stardust than anybody could\u2019ve imagined.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something incredible,\u201d Monfort told The Athletic.<\/i> \u201cBack then, nobody could imagine that this baby would be who he is now \u2014 and you could not have known that Messi would become who he became, either.”<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019d be like discovering a photo of a young Michael Jordan bathing a baby LeBron James, or of Katharine Hepburn with an infant Meryl Streep, or of Frank Sinatra alongside a newborn Bruce Springsteen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yamal didn\u2019t grow up to be just any elite soccer player who happens to be playing for Spain, which would be remarkable in and of itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more When does the Iran War become a forever war?<\/a><\/p>\n

At 19, Yamal may already be the best player in the world \u2014 a title the 20-year-old Messi was vying for when the photo was taken. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yamal is the best player produced by Barcelona\u2019s academy since Messi, to whom Yamal has constantly been compared through his rise. He has inherited the Argentine great\u2019s No. 10 shirt at Barcelona, too. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yamal evens wears No. 19 for Spain, as Messi did for Argentina when Messi was Yamal\u2019s age. The Spaniard dribbles through much older opponents in Messi-esque fashion, and he has a magic wand of a left foot that even the Argentine wizard would be proud of.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked in 2024 which young player reminded him of himself, Messi chose Yamal, who at 17 helped Spain become European champions that summer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I have to choose someone, because of the age and because of the future that he has, I\u2019ve heard that they have chosen Lamine Yamal and without doubt [it\u2019s him] for me, too,\u201d Messi said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yamal was asked about the photos ahead of Tuesday\u2019s World Cup semifinal between France and Spain, with England and Messi\u2019s Argentina on the other side of the bracket.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve grown a little bit, I think [Messi] has as well,\u201d Yamal joked. \u201cI hope I can face him in a final.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Yamal got his wish. <\/span><\/p>\n

Messi and Yamal are at opposite ends of their professional journeys. Messi has won eight Ballon d\u2019Ors as the best player in the world, while Yamal is seeking his first (a World Cup win would help). Yamal has helped Barcelona to three Spanish titles, a long way from Messi\u2019s 10. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sunday could be the last World Cup match for Messi, perhaps the greatest soccer player ever. This is Yamal\u2019s first World Cup. He may have four or five more in his future.<\/span><\/p>\n

It will be the first time the two Barcelona No. 10s have ever met on the pitch. But for a brief, impossibly unlikely moment nearly two decades ago, their paths crossed for the first time. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more China rejects Trump\u2019s election interference claim as \u2018groundless accusations\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

If it hadn\u2019t been photographed, we wouldn\u2019t believe it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Messi and Lamine Yamal will meet on the pitch for the first time on Sunday, just over 18 years after their paths first crossed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"\nTwenty years ago, Lionel Messi was photographed with a baby \u2026 who grew up to face him in a World Cup final - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5121\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Twenty years ago, Lionel Messi was photographed with a baby \u2026 who grew up to face him in a World Cup final - 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