Nearly two decades ago, a teenage Lionel Messi with long hair held a newborn baby in a plastic bathtub. It was 2007, and the photo shoot for a charity calendar by Sport newspaper and UNICEF seemed like just another routine assignment. Now that same image has gone viral on the eve of the 2026 World Cup final, where Messi's Argentina will face Lamine Yamal's Spain for the biggest prize in soccer.
Photographer Joan Monfort, a freelance photojournalist for the Associated Press, said he never thought much of the shoot until fate revealed its significance. "I 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," Monfort told the AP.
Yamal's mother won a raffle among families in Mataró, near Barcelona, to participate in the calendar. Destiny paired her baby boy with the young Argentine who would become one of the greatest players of all time. The photo resurfaced during Euro 2024, when Yamal's father posted it on social media during the tournament Spain went on to win.
