'A true miracle of destiny' - Messi and Yamal's incredible first meeting
The greatest footballer of all-time and the heir to his crown on the right wing at Barcelona will face each other for the first time
The greatest footballer of all-time and the heir to his crown on the right wing at Barcelona will face each other for the first time when Argentina play Spain in Sunday's World Cup final. Given Lionel Messi is now 39 and Lamine Yamal just 19, it is testament to the former's relentless perseverance and the latter's precocious talent that a match featuring both can take place at all, never mind in the sport's greatest fixture.
But this is far from the first time the two have crossed paths. That happened in 2007, when a 20-year-old Messi had recently become a regular starter for Barcelona, and Yamal was only five months old. The meeting is documented in a series of photographs taken by Joan Monfort. They resurfaced two years ago, when Yamal helped Spain win Euro 2024, as his father posted one online with the caption "The beginning of two legends".
In the photos, a smiling Messi is cradling and bathing a tiny baby boy who would inexplicably follow so closely in his footballing footsteps. "It is a true miracle of destiny", Monfort
tells BBC Sport. "It is serendipity - when you find something extra special, so much bigger than you ever thought. "If you wrote this in a film it would not seem possible."
The BriefWire