'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 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 Lamine 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 Lamine 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 photoshoot took place in the away dressing room at Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium.

Lamine Yamal's family had won a competition to be there.

His parents, Morocco-born Mounir Nasraoui and Sheila Ebana from Equatorial Guinea, met after moving to Catalonia as children with their own families.

Lamine Yamal is their eldest child, and shortly after he was born, they entered a raffle run by Catalan newspaper Sport in conjunction with Barcelona shirt sponsor and international children's charity Unicef.

Those selected at random would have professional photos taken of their baby with a Barcelona first-team player.

Lamine Yamal was among the winners, and on the day the family arrived, they were paired with Messi by chance.

"I had no idea it was Lamine in the photo until one my friends called me in 2024 and told me his father had posted it to Instagram," Monfort explains.

"Messi is a really introverted guy, very timid and shy. He came into the dressing room and suddenly had to take these photos with a little baby - not even a kid, a proper baby and his face changed like he had no idea what to do!

"It is difficult for a young man, but Lamine was a very happy, smiley little baby. His mum Sheila helped us, she was a young girl and they were a very poor family, but they were very nice to work with.

"Messi was always a professional in these kinds of things and he adapted to the situation very quickly."

'I'll never be able to repay my parents'

By his 19th birthday Messi had scored 11 career goals and won La Liga and the Uefa Champions League once each.

Having turned 19 on Monday, Lamine Yamal has already scored a whopping 56 goals and won La Liga three times and the Copa del Rey once, as well as Euro 2024.

Yamal is not actually the player's surname, but the second of his two first names.

His full name is Lamine Yamal Naraoui Ebana, and he wears the former two on the back of his shirts for both Barcelona and Spain as an homage to two people who helped his family around the time of his birth.

It has been widely reported in Spanish media that Lamine Yamal's father promised to name him after two friends who assisted the family financially, helping them to pay their bills at a time when money was tight.

Lamine is a common male first name in Arabic, which can be translated to English as honest or trustworthy, while Yamal is a variant of Jamal, meaning elegance or beauty.

He grew up in Rocafonda, a working-class neighbourhood in Mataro, 20 miles north of Barcelona.

The area was built in the 1960s to house migrants from other regions of Spain, and when they began to move to more well-off areas, migrants from other countries arrived in the 1990s.

Lamine Yamal has celebrated some of his goals by making a 3-0-4 gesture with his fingers, referring to Rocafonda's postcode.

"What my mother has done, what my father has done, I couldn't have done that for anyone who is not my child", Yamal told El Pais in earlier in the tournament.

"If you don't have money, it's very hard to help your child play football. And my parents managed to make all that happen. It's something I'll never be able to repay them for."

'My heart is breaking in two pieces'

For Monfort, a Catalan who supports Barcelona, an on-pitch meeting between the two is the perfect denouement to a story which began almost two decades ago.

"I think we are closing the cycle of their story," Monfort, now 58, adds. "It is a happy end.

"I am a fan of Barcelona, and I think for Messi it's perfect if he can finish his career winning the World Cup for the second time. I think he deserves it.

"And for Lamine he has a lot of time to win trophies like the World Cup. But Spain and Lamine are arriving in a good moment and if he wins it now, it would be worth more than his other titles.

"It is very difficult for me. My heart is breaking in two pieces."

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