World Cup final 2026: The remarkable photos of Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal's first meeting as they prepare to face off
Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal go head to head in Sunday's World Cup final between Argentina and Spain, 19 years after their first meeting was captured in a remarkable series of photographs by Joan Monfort
Friday 17 July 2026 15:16, UK
Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal will play against each other for the first time when Argentina face Spain in Sunday's World Cup final.
The showpiece fixture pits the player considered by many to be the greatest of all-time against the pretender to his throne who now occupies his old position for Barcelona.
They are at opposite ends of their careers, separated in age by two decades, but remarkably, they first met 19 years ago, in 2007, when Messi was 20 and Lamine Yamal was a six-month-old.
The meeting occurred when Lamine Yamal's family won the chance to have their baby pictured with a Barcelona star as part of a charity photoshoot organised by Catalan newspaper Sport and Unicef.
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The event was photographed by Joan Monfort, whose images went viral after one of them was posted on Instagram by Lamine Yamal's father, Mounir Nasraoui, alongside a caption reading "the beginning of two legends", as his son starred during Spain's triumphant European Championship-winning campaign in 2024.
"I felt very happy when I found out," Monfort told Sky Sports. "I'm happy that this photo has been seen around the world."
The images are circulating again ahead of Sunday's game in New Jersey, where Lamine Yamal's Spain stand in the way of Argentina retaining the World Cup in what is expected to be Messi's final appearance in the competition.
Messi heads into the game as Argentina's leader, having scored eight goals at the tournament and assisted two more in their semi-final win over England, but Monfort described him being out of his comfort zone, aged 20, when asked to pose with a baby.
"Messi is a very shy boy, very introverted," he added. "He is now and it was much more so before. It took a while for him to interact with a six-month-old baby.
"But in the end, the truth is that they both did a lot. Lamine was a very nice boy. He won Messi over in a short time."
The circumstances of their reunion on Sunday, 19 years after that extraordinary first meeting, could hardly be more different.
