The photo that foretold it: Yamal faces Messi, who ‘baptised’ him, in final | FIFA World Cup 2026

Football has always had a way of writing stories that seem too unbelievable to be true.

On Sunday night at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Lionel Messi will lead defending champions Argentina into the FIFA World Cup 2026 final against European champions Spain.

Standing on the opposite side will be Lamine Yamal, the teenage sensation many already believe could become football’s next global icon.

For most fans, it is simply the meeting of the greatest player of a generation against the brightest talent of the next. But for those who know the story, this final is something much bigger. 

  The Finalissima that never happened

Long before the World Cup final became reality, football fans were waiting for Messi-Yamal first meeting at the football pitch.

Argentina’s Copa América triumph and Spain’s UEFA Euro 2024 success meant Messi and Yamal were expected to face each other in the next Finalissima, the clash between the South American and European champions.

Instead, scheduling conflicts, FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup, an increasingly packed international calendar and logistical issues repeatedly delayed the fixture.

Eventually, the match quietly disappeared from immediate plans. The football world never got its Messi versus Yamal showdown. Instead, destiny saved it for something much bigger.

Rather than a ceremonial champions’ clash, the two now meet with the FIFA World Cup trophy on the line.

When Messi unknowingly met his future rival

The story begins in Barcelona in late 2007. Messi was only 20 years old.

He had begun establishing himself as Ronaldinho’s heir but had not yet won a Ballon d’Or, Champions League as the team’s talisman or a World Cup. At the same time, five-month-old Lamine Yamal knew nothing about football.

His family entered a charity raffle organised by Diario Sport and UNICEF, which offered local families the opportunity to pose with Barcelona players for the newspaper’s annual charity calendar. Yamal’s family won.

Inside the Camp Nou dressing room, photographer Joan Monfort captured a series of photographs that nobody realised would become iconic.

One image showed Messi carefully holding baby Yamal inside a small blue bathtub during the photoshoot. It looked like an ordinary charity campaign. It turned out to be football history.

The famous photograph that resurfaced years later

The photographs remained largely forgotten until Euro 2024.

As Yamal dazzled Europe while helping Spain lift the European Championship, his father, Mounir Nasraoui, shared one of the images on Instagram.

Suddenly the world rediscovered the extraordinary coincidence. The greatest player of the modern era had unknowingly cradled the footballer many believed could become his successor. The photographer who witnessed history Photographer Joan Monfort still remembers the awkwardness of the shoot.

Messi was naturally shy. He admitted the Barcelona star looked uncomfortable when he entered the dressing room. “Messi is very introverted and shy,” Monfort recalled.

“He entered the changing room to find a plastic bathtub filled with water and a baby inside. In the beginning he did not know how to hold him.”

Nearly two decades later, Monfort never imagined those photographs would become among football’s most famous images.

“It’s very exciting to be associated with something that has caused such a sensation.”

Barcelona: Where both stories began

Their connection goes well beyond one photograph. Both became products of Barcelona’s football culture.

Messi arrived from Argentina as a teenager and transformed into the greatest player in the club’s history.

He left with:

• 
  Eight Ballons d’Or (eventually)
• 
  Four Champions League titles
• 
  Ten La Liga trophies
• 
  Barcelona’s all-time scoring record

Yamal has emerged from La Masia following a remarkably similar path.

Still only 19, he has already become one of Barcelona’s biggest stars.

He has won multiple La Liga titles, conquered Europe with Spain and inherited Barcelona’s iconic No. 10 shirt once worn by Messi himself.

Messi has already chosen his successor

The admiration is mutual. Earlier this year, Messi was asked to name the finest player of football’s new generation.

His answer came instantly. “It would be Lamine. No doubt about it: for me, he is the best.” Praise rarely comes bigger. For arguably the greatest footballer ever to publicly identify Yamal as the best young player in world football speaks volumes.

Yamal refuses to become ‘the next Messi’

Many young stars have struggled under comparisons with Messi. Yamal has chosen another route. Respect. Not imitation.

Asked about being compared to the Argentine, he replied: “For me, Messi is the greatest football player in history. He is a legend and I do not find myself worthy of being compared to him.”

He then made his ambitions crystal clear. “I do not want to be Messi and he knows it. I want to follow my own path.”

Even comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo receive the same response. “It is best not to compare yourself to anyone.”

“Players like Cristiano Ronaldo did what they did because they wanted to be themselves. I try to be me, play my game, and get people to recognise me for being Lamine.”

A football brain inspired by Messi and Modric

Interestingly, Yamal says he never tried to copy Messi’s dribbling. Instead, he admired something deeper. His vision. “When I was small I never dribbled much or got past many opponents.”

“I focused on what Messi did because he gave different passes, passes that led to goals.”

That intelligence has made Yamal far more than an explosive winger. Many believe he is evolving into the kind of complete playmaker Messi himself eventually became. Spain’s new king meets Argentina’s eternal king

Sunday’s final is more than Spain versus Argentina. It is also experience versus youth. Messi, now 39, has already won everything football has to offer. World Cup, Copa América., Champions League, Ballon d’Or.

Yamal, meanwhile, is only beginning. He has already won a European Championship and become Spain’s creative heartbeat before turning 20.

But a World Cup would elevate him into another stratosphere.

Can the apprentice dethrone the master?

Ironically, Messi has spent two decades inspiring footballers around the world. Now one of those children stands directly in his path.

The little boy once photographed in Messi’s arms has become Spain’s biggest hope. The footballer who unknowingly bathed him now stands between him and the greatest trophy in the sport.

For Messi, victory would mean ending his World Cup career with consecutive world titles and perhaps the perfect farewell.

For Yamal, defeating his idol would instantly become the defining moment of his young career and perhaps mark the true beginning of football’s next era.

Whether it represents the passing of the torch or one final masterpiece from the greatest of all time, Sunday’s World Cup final is already one of football’s most poetic stories. Nineteen years ago, Lionel Messi gently held baby Lamine Yamal in a bathtub at Camp Nou.