How Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal's viral photo came full circle at the World Cup
Spanish phenom Lamine Yamal and Argentine superstar Lionel Messi reunited on the pitch Sunday following Spain's thrilling victory over Argentina to secure its second World Cup championship.
The meeting came nearly two decades after the pair appeared in a now-famous photoshoot together by pure chance.
After Sunday's match, as Spain celebrated their win, Yamal approached Messi, who was sitting on the grass. Messi stood up, and the two shared a brief embrace before parting ways again to rejoin their teammates.
Yamal and Messi were also captured greeting each other ahead of Sunday's final match, briefly shaking hands and embracing in the tunnel at New York New Jersey Stadium -- known outside the tournament as MetLife Stadium -- according to a video shared by Fox Sports.
Ahead of Sunday's highly anticipated World Cup Final, a resurfaced photograph of the two stars became a defining visual of a remarkable full-circle moment.
The image features the Argentine legend with Spain's breakout football star as an infant. In the photo, which reached viral status online in recent months, Messi appears to be giving baby Yamal a bath.
Lamal's father Mounir Nasraoui previously shared a behind-the-scenes snapshot from what appears to be the now-famous photo shoot on Instagram back in 2024.
Photographed by Joan Monfort in 2007, the image was part of a charity calendar to benefit UNICEF and was a collaboration with the FC Barcelona Foundation. The calendar was launched in 2008, and 50% of sales went to projects promoting children's rights.
Other soccer players who took part in the calendar included Xavi Hernández, Ronaldinho Gaucho, Carles Puyol and Samuel Eto'o.
Monfort told ESPN in 2024 that each month of the calendar featured a footballer with a child from Catalonia, Spain. Parents could have their children participate by entering a draw.
"The objective was to give visibility to a series of social problems faced by kids and their families," Monfort told ESPN. "It was coming up to Christmas, and we wanted to transmit humanity, both through the kids and the players. We tried to find a way of them interacting, laughing, as relaxed as possible."
The photographer said that Messi and Yamal were photographed for the month of January. Monfort said it was his idea to photograph Messi bathing baby Yamal, saying he thought it would be a good way for them to interact. He added that Yamal's mother helped with the process to get the shots.
The photograph was long forgotten until Nasraoui shared it on Instagram in July 2024.
"The beginning of two legends ❤️," he captioned the post at the time.
Yamal's path to fame has been remarkably similar to Messi's in the years since the photograph was taken: He came up through FC Barcelona's famed youth academy, La Masia, before breaking into the club's first team as a teenager. Both are also left-footed forwards who began their careers at an unusually young age.
In December 2024, when Messi was asked by a reporter about which football player reminded him of himself, Messi replied, "If I have to choose someone, because of the age and because of the future that he has, I've heard that they have chosen Lamine Yamal -- and without doubt, [it's him] for me too."
"He's the present and without a doubt has a huge future," he added at the time.
Whether or not Sunday's match marked Messi's final World Cup appearance remains to be seen, but for many fans, it represented more than just a battle for soccer's biggest prize, bringing together two players linked by one unforgettable photograph -- one who has defined his generation and another who could define the next.
The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of ABC News and ESPN.
