{"id":56508,"date":"2026-07-17T13:53:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/56508\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T13:53:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:53:27","slug":"stranger-than-fiction-lionel-messi-lamine-yamal-set-for-fifa-world-cup-final-19-years-after-first-meeting-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/56508\/","title":{"rendered":"Stranger than fiction: Lionel Messi, Lamine Yamal set for FIFA World Cup final 19 years after first meeting | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"StrangerLionel Messi and Lamine Yamal (Image credit: Joan Monfort) Some stories are too unbelievable to be written. Yet, football has produced one. Nineteen years after Lionel Messi<\/a> first met Lamine Yamal during a charity photoshoot in Barcelona, the two will stand on opposite sides in the FIFA World Cup final. Argentina and Spain will battle for football’s biggest prize on Sunday at the New York New Jersey Stadium, turning an unforgettable photograph into one of the sport’s greatest full-circle moments. Back in 2007, Messi was already a Barcelona star. Yamal was just a baby. During a charity calendar shoot organised by Sport newspaper and UNICEF, photographer Joan Monfort captured Messi bathing the infant Yamal in a plastic tub. At the time, it was just another assignment.No one could have imagined that the baby in Messi’s arms would grow up to become Spain’s biggest football star.The journey since then has been remarkable. Messi became one of the greatest players in football history before leaving Barcelona in 2021 after the club’s financial troubles forced his exit. Just two years later, Yamal burst onto the scene at the same club, becoming Barcelona’s next global superstar.Now, the story has come full circle. The 19-year-old Yamal will face Messi, who is 20 years older, in the biggest match in football.<\/p>\n

A coincidence that feels like destiny<\/p>\n

The famous photographs remained largely forgotten until Yamal’s father shared one on social media during Euro 2024, when the teenager led Spain to the title. The image quickly went viral, and ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final, it has once again become one of the most talked-about pictures in football.Photographer Joan Monfort admitted even he struggles to explain how everything has unfolded.\u201cI have never been a believer or thought that anything was destined to occur, but I am beginning to have my doubts. This is beyond all reasonable explanations,\u201d Monfort told The Associated Press from his home in Barcelona on Friday.Monfort had taken the photographs in 2007 as part of a charity calendar. Yamal’s mother had won a raffle for families from Matar\u00f3, near Barcelona, to participate, and by chance her baby was paired with Messi.<\/p>\n

‘Better than any film script’<\/p>\n

With Messi and Yamal now preparing to meet in a World Cup final, interest in the iconic images has exploded once again.\u201cThis has exploded all over the world, and the fact that the final is in the U.S. has given it the extra push,\u201d Monfort said. \u201cAnd now this has culminated with the final between Messi and Yamal. It is better than any film script.\u201dThe Barcelona-based photographer said media organisations across the world have requested the images, while they have also been widely shared on social media without credit.<\/p>\n

A difficult choice for a Barcelona fan<\/p>\n

For Monfort, Sunday’s final is emotional. Like many Barcelona supporters, he feels connected to both players.\u201cMy heart is split. I don\u2019t know if I want Messi or Yamal to win,\u201d said Monfort, a lifelong Barcelona supporter.He explained why both players mean so much to him.\u201cI have an everlasting love for the best player of all time (Messi),\u201d he said, but \u201cYamal has broken the mold here\u201d and represents a new, diverse Spain, thanks to his parents from Morocco and Equatorial Guinea. \u201cMaybe they can both win. I wouldn’t rule it out after everything we have seen.\u201dFrom a charity photoshoot in Barcelona to the biggest stage in world football, Messi and Yamal’s journey is the kind of story that feels stranger than fiction. On Sunday, it will have one final chapter at the New York New Jersey Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal (Image credit: Joan Monfort) Some stories are too unbelievable to be written. Yet,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[23496,92,23497,23495,938,332,23498],"class_list":["post-56508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-argentina-vs-spain","tag-barcelona","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026-final","tag-fifa-world-cup-final","tag-lamine-yamal","tag-lionel-messi","tag-lionel-messi-lamine-yamal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}