DUBAI: Lionel Messi is one victory away from one of the most remarkable reunions in World Cup history.
If Argentina defeat England in Wednesday’s semifinal, the 39-year-old captain will face Spain’s Lamine Yamal in Sunday’s FIFA World Cup final, 19 years after unknowingly bathing the 5-month-old during a Barcelona charity photoshoot.
The photograph has become one of football’s most recognizable images, but its significance today extends far beyond coincidence. It is a testament to Messi’s extraordinary longevity.
Few players remain among the world’s elite at 39. Fewer still are leading reigning world champions deep into a World Cup nearly two decades after first crossing paths with a future opponent as an infant.
Spain booked their place in Sunday’s final after a 2-0 victory over France, while Argentina are now one match away from setting up the first meeting between Messi and Yamal on a football pitch.
Before Spain’s semifinal, Yamal admitted he hoped Argentina would join La Roja in the final. In a World Cup questionnaire with Mundo Deportivo, the Barcelona winger also revealed that the one player whose shirt he most wanted to swap was Messi.
For Messi, another World Cup semifinal represents far more than another opportunity to lift a trophy. He continues to redefine what is possible late in a footballer’s career.
While his game has naturally evolved, his influence has not. The explosive winger who once sprinted beyond defenders now controls matches through intelligence, timing and vision, choosing the moments that matter most.
Messi remains Argentina’s driving force. Against Egypt in the round of 16, he became the first player to score in six consecutive World Cup knockout matches before leading the defending champions past Switzerland and into another semifinal.
Victory over England would add another remarkable chapter to an already unparalleled World Cup career.
Messi could become the first player to captain his country in three World Cup finals, having previously led Argentina in the 2014 defeat to Germany and the 2022 triumph over France. He would also become only the second player, after Brazil’s Cafu, to appear on the pitch in three World Cup finals.
While Messi continues to extend one of football’s greatest careers, Yamal is only beginning his.
Having turned 19 on the day Spain defeated France, the Barcelona winger is preparing for the biggest match of his young career at an age when most players are still trying to establish themselves at club level.
Only a handful of teenagers have reached a World Cup final as leading players. Pele remains the youngest player to score and win a World Cup final after inspiring Brazil to the title at 17 in 1958, while Kylian Mbappe became only the second teenager to score in a final when France defeated Croatia in 2018.
The photograph linking Messi and Yamal was taken in 2007 during a UNICEF charity initiative organized with Barcelona and Diario Sport. Families from the Catalan town of Mataro entered a raffle for the chance to have their children photographed with first-team players, and Yamal’s family happened to be selected.
Photographer Joan Monfort later recalled that Messi, then a shy 20-year-old still making his name at Barcelona, initially appeared uncomfortable holding the baby before gradually relaxing as the shoot progressed.
The images remained largely out of the public eye until Euro 2024, when Yamal’s father shared one on social media as his son emerged as one of Europe’s brightest young talents. Since then, the photograph has come to symbolize football’s changing generations.
The parallels are striking. Both are left-footed attackers developed at La Masia. Both broke into Barcelona’s first team as teenagers. Both possess the rare ability to decide matches long before reaching their peak.
If Argentina overcome England, Sunday’s final will offer more than a meeting between football’s past and future. Nineteen years after their chance encounter at Camp Nou, Messi and Yamal could finally share a World Cup pitch with the sport’s biggest prize at stake.
Yamal would be looking to announce the arrival of a new era, while Messi would be trying to prove that his extraordinary one is still far from over.
