On Sunday, the pair will finally meet again \u2014 for the first ever time on a football pitch \u2014 in the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina.<\/p>\n
Messi is now 39. In what is widely expected to be his last game on this global stage, he has a chance to add a fourth World Cup winner\u2019s star to Argentina\u2019s jersey.<\/p>\n
Yamal, 19, is Spain\u2019s biggest name and, like Messi, is capable of inspiring his national team to what would be a second title. In the years since their first encounter, he has also emerged as perhaps the closest possible heir to Messi\u2019s legend at Barcelona.<\/a><\/p>\n The whole thing is just extraordinary, and it has become a big part of the global conversation around Sunday\u2019s match.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, that photo of us is crazy, because \u2014 well, that\u2019s life, right? I took a photo with him as a baby, and here we both are, facing off in a World Cup,\u201d said Messi on Friday in New York.<\/p>\n \u201cLamine is a huge talent, someone I\u2019ve followed a lot because he plays for a club I love and I always wish him the best, I always want the best for him. And, well, he\u2019s one of the world\u2019s benchmark players at 19 years old, and he has his whole career ahead of him. He has a great opportunity to achieve something historic, which we\u2019ll try our hardest to make sure doesn\u2019t happen this time. I just want to wish him the best.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s crazy. He\u2019s one of the best in the world right now, no doubt about it. And I wish him a lot of luck, because what\u2019s good for him will also be good for Barcelona.\u201d<\/p>\n The probability of Messi and Yamal appearing in the photos together, and then meeting in a World Cup final, has been widely debated on social media.<\/p>\n Some estimates have put the chances somewhere in the one in 48billion ballpark. All we can say for sure is that it\u2019s incredibly unlikely. But it\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n The photos re-emerged during the European Championship of 2024, after Yamal\u2019s father, Mounir Nasraoui, posted them online.<\/p>\n \u201cLife has these coincidences,\u201d Nasraoui told newspaper Mundo Deportivo as Spain prepared for the July 14 final against England, which they won 2-1, the day after Yamal\u2019s 17th birthday.<\/p>\n Some people\u2019s reading of the photo suggested Messi was somehow ordaining his future successor with a blessed talent that was now coming good. Yamal\u2019s dad suggested it could actually have been the other way around.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe Lamine was giving it to Leo, I don\u2019t know,\u201d Nasraoui said. \u201cFor me, my son is the best. In everything.\u201d<\/p>\n \n (FC Barcelona\/Diario Sport\/Joan Monfort)<\/p>\n The photographer who took the shots explained in a 2024 interview with The Athletic how it all came about<\/a>. It was for a charity calendar Barcelona used to produce each year in partnership with UNICEF and others, including local newspaper Diario Sport.<\/p>\n Joan Monfort said he \u201csweated blood to take it\u201d because Messi, then 20, was \u201cshy\u201d and, having been partnered with Yamal, \u201cfound himself with a tiny baby in a plastic bath full of water\u201d.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cAt the start, there was not much interaction. But, bit by bit, it started to happen and in the end, it\u2019s a pretty good photo.<\/p>\n \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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are talking about 2007. Messi was only beginning at Barca. Destiny plays an important role in these things.<\/p>\n \u201cThe chances of all this happening was like winning the lottery, although it\u2019s not sorted me out financially for life.\u201d<\/p>\n It also feels remarkable that, given the many parallels and similarities in how their lives progressed from that point, they have not met more regularly since.<\/p>\n For a while now, fate has seemed to be keeping Yamal and Messi apart.<\/p>\n Messi was a prodigy who moved from his childhood home in Rosario, Argentina, to join Barca\u2019s La Masia youth academy aged 13. He went on to score 709 goals in 837 games for the first team, winning multiple trophies including four Champions Leagues and 10 La Liga titles before leaving in 2021.<\/p>\n Yamal was born in Barcelona and raised in Mataro,<\/a> about 20 miles up the coast. By the age of six he had joined Barca\u2019s youth system, and at 12 he moved down to the city and into the Catalan club\u2019s academy permanently.<\/p>\n There is one photo that shows Yamal and Messi, now with Inter Miami, together around that time, a chance meeting as they crossed paths near the training ground. They are not believed to have met since.<\/p>\n The Athletic consulted sources close to both players for this article and neither side (speaking anonymously as they did not have permission to comment) considered this unusual, given they live on different continents and have extremely busy schedules.<\/p>\n As Yamal\u2019s exceptional talent began to emerge (he made his Barcelona debut aged 15 in April 2023)<\/a>, Adidas made their move to sponsor him. This included a video message from Messi, already on the kit manufacturer\u2019s books. It worked, but the pair did not physically meet.<\/p>\n Circumstances have also meant that Messi and Yamal have not coincided at any of the big awards ceremonies for football\u2019s individual prizes.<\/p>\n Yamal did, however, meet with Brazilian former Barcelona star Neymar at the Globe Soccer Awards held in Dubai in December 2024, and there was an instant connection.<\/p>\n Neymar, who played for Barca from 2013 to 2017, was Yamal\u2019s favourite player. Growing up, he would study YouTube videos of the Brazilian\u2019s tricks and then reproduce them.<\/p>\n After their meeting in Dubai, Yamal and Neymar kept in regular contact. Last summer, Yamal spent time at the Brazilian\u2019s personal resort in Rio de Janeiro during his holidays. People who know Yamal well say this connection makes sense, given he is closer in personality to the more extroverted Neymar than the quite reserved Messi.<\/p>\n Messi and Yamal looked set to come together when European champions Spain and Copa America holders Argentina were due to meet in a Finalissima exhibition game in Qatar in March.<\/p>\n But the conflict between Iran and the United States and Israel saw that game cancelled at short notice.<\/a> At the World Cup, FIFA\u2019s new seeding system meant Spain and Argentina could only meet in the final if both sides topped their groups.<\/p>\n When Yamal was given Barcelona\u2019s No 10 shirt in July last year, there was no connection or collaboration between the two. That is at least partly due to the complicated relationship Messi has with Barca\u2019s leadership<\/a> over the nature of his abrupt 2021 exit.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/calendari-messi-lamine-joanmonfort-diariosport.jpeg\")
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![\"Yamal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285796035-scaled.jpg\")
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