The real story behind the viral photo of Lionel Messi and four-month-old Lamine Yamal | OneFootball

A recent image of a young Lionel Messi bathing a four-month-old Lamine Yamal has taken social media and the internet by storm, and rightly so.

After all, it is almost impossible to imagine that the Barcelona legend and the club’s latest young sensation crossed paths over 15 years ago. At that point, Messi was not the biggest player in Catalonia as he is today and Yamal was less than half a year old.

Many have called the photo one of the great Barcelona photos with many fans even calling it the moment Messi ‘passed on his powers’ to the youngster. It is, indeed, a coincidence that is too good to be true.

The story behind the historic photo

AS brings to light the story behind the iconic photo that will go down in history as one of the greatest coincidences in history.

For starters, the photo was taken in 2007 as part of one of SPORT’s collaborations with Barcelona and UNICEF to design a charity calendar involving players of the club. The idea was to include photos of players with young infants.

The special one with the chosen one

For the second edition of the aforementioned initiative, UNICEF spent a few months choosing from children in Catalonia who came under the umbrella of its program.

A lottery was arranged between parents interested in participating in the program and the random selection that followed in Mataro saw Yamal’s parents win over the competition. Destiny, as they say, is written in the stars.

The special photo shoot

Having been selected as one of the few families to participate in the initiative, Yamal’s parents were invited to Camp Nou in December 2007.

The future sensation, at this point, was chosen for the photo but there was no way to know which player he would be paired up with on the day.

Almost as if pre-destined, the player chosen for the day was a shy Messi who was seen as one of the team’s greatest prospects.

Yamal’s parents were greeted by the photographer Joan Montfort and Oriol Canals to the dressing room where the photos were being taken. Little did they know that 16 years later, the infant they carried would be a mainstay in the same room.

As the photographers prepared the shot with a tub of water and baby Yamal, the shy Messi entered. The Argentine phenom had never held a child in his arms before, the Spanish outlet furthers, and it is only fitting that Yamal, on that day, was his first.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​