Whether or not you believe in fate, you have to admit that these baby photos of Lamine Yamal being held by Lionel Messi are something else.
Yamal, 16, a rising Spanish footballer that plays for FC Barcelona and Spain’s national team, recently became the youngest goalscorer in Euros history, helping Spain defeat France in a 2-1 victory on Tuesday.
Ever since his historic goal, resurfaced photos of Yamal as a baby being bathed by a then-20-year-old Messi began to circulate on social media.
The photos were shared last week by Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, who wrote in Spanish on Instagram, “The beginning of two legends.”
According to the Associated Press, the photos were taken in the fall of 2007 by freelance photographer Joan Monfort, 56, who was creating a series of images of Barça players posing with children for a charity calendar. The shoot took place inside the visitors’ locker room at Barcelona’s Camp Nou.
"We made the calendar with the help of UNICEF," said Monfort, per AP. "So UNICEF did a raffle in the neighborhood of Roca Fonda in Mataró, where Lamine's family lived. They signed up for the raffle to have their picture taken at the Camp Nou with a Barça player. And they won the raffle."
“Messi is a pretty introverted guy, he’s shy,” Monfort added. “He was coming out of the locker room and suddenly he finds himself in another locker room with a plastic tub full of water and a baby in it. It was complicated. He didn’t even know how to hold him at first.”
Yamal’s mother, Sheila Ebana, was also seen in the snapshots helping the Argentine soccer icon, now 37, throughout the photoshoot.
Montfort also told the news agency that he did not realize it was Yamal in the photos until a friend messaged him when they went viral online. In his three-decade career as a sports journalist, Montfort said he never experienced that kind of buzz around his photos.
“It’s very exciting to be associated with something that has caused such a sensation,” he said. “To tell you the truth it’s a very nice feeling.”
Although Messi was considered a big talent at the time, the Associated Press notes that it would still take a few more years before he would become the internationally renowned star he is considered today.
Yamal will turn 17 on Saturday, just a day before he is set to play the Euro 2024 final in Berlin.
Some things are simply meant to be.
