Photographs showing a young Lionel Messi holding and bathing an infant Lamine Yamal at a Barcelona photoshoot in 2007 have returned to public attention, according to a report published by MyJoyOnline.
The report says Messi, then 20 and becoming a regular in Barcelona’s first team, was paired with Yamal’s family during a charity-related photoshoot organised through Catalan newspaper Sport, Barcelona and Unicef. Yamal, now a Barcelona and Spain player, was five months old at the time.
Photographer Joan Monfort, who took the images, told BBC Sport that the family had been selected through a raffle for babies to be photographed with Barcelona players. He said the pairing with Messi was by chance and that he only realised the child in the old photographs was Yamal after the player’s father shared an image in 2024.
Yamal’s father posted one of the photographs after Spain’s Euro 2024 success, describing it as “the beginning of two legends”, the report said.
MyJoyOnline said the images have resurfaced ahead of a reported meeting between Messi’s Argentina and Yamal’s Spain in the World Cup final. If confirmed, it would be the first senior international match involving the two players.
The report also revisits Yamal’s family background. Born Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana, he grew up in Rocafonda, a working-class neighbourhood in Mataro, north of Barcelona. He has used a hand gesture referring to the area’s 304 postcode in some goal celebrations.
In comments previously reported by El Pais, Yamal credited his parents for supporting his football development during periods of financial difficulty. Monfort described the prospect of Messi and Yamal playing against each other as a remarkable conclusion to a story that began with the 2007 photographs.
