Lionel Messi’ pictures with infant Lamine Yamal have gone viral on social media, as the two represent Argentina and Spain in the ongoing Copa America and Euro 2024, respectively. The story behind the image is even more intriguing.
Argentina’s second goal came in the 51st minute, when Messi used his boot to deflect Enzo Fernandez’s attempt from the edge of the area, allowing them to defeat Canada and advance to the final. Earlier, Yamal, 16, became the youngest Euro scorer with a magnificent shot in the 21st minute.
Joan Monfort took the shot for a charity calendar nearly 17 years ago, and it resurfaced after Yamal’s father posted it on Instagram this week with the caption “the beginning of two legends.”
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Monfort, a 56-year-old freelance photographer, said the photo shoot took place in the visitors’ locker room at Barcelona’s Camp Nou in the autumn of 2007, when Yamal was only a few months old.
Barcelona players posed with children and their families for a calendar as part of an annual charity campaign organized by local newspaper Diario Sport and UNICEF. Monfort was in charge of the photo shoots, and Messi happened to be paired with Yamal’s family. His mother, who is from Equatorial Guinea, is next to Messi and the baby in one of the photos.
“Messi is a pretty introverted guy, he’s shy,” Monfort said. “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.”
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