From baby photoshoot to World Cup final, Messi and Yamal meet again
A viral 2007 photograph of Lionel Messi bathing a young Lamine Yamal has resurfaced ahead of a major soccer final between Argentina and Spain. The image, originally taken for a charity calendar, is being viewed as a symbolic passing of the torch between two soccer icons.
Why it matters
It highlights the intersection of sports history and serendipity, capturing the narrative arc of two generations of elite athletes.
20-year-old soccer star Lionel Messi helps to bathe Lamine Yamal, who was merely six months old at the time with Yamal's mother Sheila Ebana during a photo session in Sept. 2007 in the dressing room of the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort) BARCELONA, Spain — Almost two decades ago, photographer Joan Monfort didn't think much of his photo shoot of a teenage Lionel Messi bathing a cute baby boy in a plastic bathtub. Not until the remarkable twist of fate became clear years later, when that infant blossomed into Lamine Yamal.
The article is a human-interest sports feature with no political or ideological agenda.
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