If a photo of giving a baby Lamine Yamal a bath 19 years ago went viral before the final, a different image came to the fore after Sunday's showpiece.
It was a snapshot steeped in symbolism, a photo to signal a change of the guard at the pinnacle of the beautiful game in the wake of Spain's dethroning of Messi's Argentina. And it requires only a smidgeon of poetic licence to trace this passing of the torch all the way back to that original, baptism-style picture taken on 31 October 2007, even if nobody could have guessed it at the time.
“It’s incredible – it’s one of those gifts that life gives you, it’d be like Michael Jordan bathing LeBron James,” said Oriol Canals, who was working in the marketing department at Spanish sports daily Sport back when it published the calendar that featured the now-viral image. Whether you call it fate or simply a coincidence written in the stars, the fact is that this early encounter between the then Argentinian teenager and the Spanish tot has taken on a life of its own because of its significance in football history.
After all, in Messi, we are talking about a man who has broken practically every record imaginable in the game. A diminutive attacker who rose to the biggest of challenges to lead La Albiceleste back to football’s promised land and then – having returned for another bite at the cherry at the age of 39, when many had already written him off – proceeded to produce another of the finest individual campaigns in World Cup history on North American soil.
“I hope the Argentinian people are proud of their team and proud of Messi and everything he’s done,” in the wake of his side’s . "In my opinion, he’s the best footballer ever to grace a pitch."
Then there is Yamal, a 19-year-old who oozes natural talent, a youngster blessed with a magic wand of a left foot, the ability to glide past opponents at will and a knack of making the right choices at breakneck speed: a combination that renders him virtually unplayable on his day. If that sounds familiar, it is because we could just as easily be describing a young Messi. The comparisons between the two are inevitable, with the current Barcelona starlet widely tipped as the heir apparent to the Catalan club’s all-time top scorer.
Fresh from guiding Spain to their second world crown, coach Luis de la Fuente was full of praise for Yamal, hailing the tireless and disciplined shift that the youngster delivered both against Argentina and throughout the tournament. The coach also contended that this could provide a blueprint for the fledgling forward to follow in his ongoing development.
“I want to give real credit to Lamine," he said. "He’s shown that he can play football another way and this can help him kick on and become more mature and an even better player than he already is. We’re really grateful to him for how he’s sacrificed himself for the good of the team. He’s had a great World Cup.”
While still on the pitch following the final, an understandably devastated Messi made a point of going over to Yamal to embrace the youngster and congratulate him on his maiden World Cup title. What made the sight of the two luminaries hugging so powerful was not just the obvious respect between them but rather what it represented: the end of an era and potentially the start of a long-running new reign in world football. Only time will tell whether that proves to be the case.
Ultimately, the pair may well rub shoulders again in the future, but it seems unlikely that any such reunion will match the emotional punch packed by both this image and the one of that first meeting 19 years ago. As Joan Monfort, the man responsible for the original photo, put it in , “it was no coincidence: it was a miracle”.
Sources: FIFA Official
