Lamine Yamal has become Euro 2024’s golden boy after scoring a stunning goal for Spain in their 2-1 semifinal victory over France.
At just 16-year-old, the winger and product of Barcelona’s youth system made history by becoming the youngest scorer in the European Championship, surpassing Johan Vonlanthen’s 2004 record.
Interestingly, Yamal’s rise to football fame is intertwined with an early encounter with Lionel Messi. Photos recently resurfaced online showing Messi bathing baby Yamal. These images were part of a charity calendar organized by Catalan newspaper Diario Sport in collaboration with UNICEF. Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, shared a cropped photo on Instagram, captioning it: “The beginning of two legends.”
Photographer Joan Monfort, who captured the images, recounted the unique moment when Messi, then 20 and on the brink of his own greatness, met baby Lamine Yamal at Camp Nou.
“We made the calendar with the help of UNICEF,” Monfort told The Associated Press. “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. The stars aligned when Lamine met Messi, but it was very difficult,” Monfort said in an interview.
“Messi is very introverted and shy. He entered the changing room to find a plastic bathtub filled with water and a baby inside. In the beginning he did not know how to hold Lamine Yamal.”
The encounter, initially awkward due to Messi’s shyness, has now become a cherished memory, symbolizing a passing of the torch in Barcelona’s football legacy.
