The Story Behind the Viral Photos of Lionel Messi and a Baby Lamine Yamal

Follow today’s live coverage of England vs Netherlands in the semi-final of Euro 2024

“It was a difficult photo to take,” says Joan Monfort The Athletics“I can say that I sweated blood for it.

“(Lionel) Messi is still shy now; he was much shyer when he started and he is there with a little baby in a plastic tub full of water. And with his mother. At first there was not much interaction. It was difficult for all of them. But little by little it started to happen and in the end it is a pretty good picture.”

In December 2007, Monfort took a photo of 20-year-old Lionel Messi, who had begun his legendary career at Barcelona more than four years earlier, and Lamine Yamal, who was only six months old.

It was published in a 2008 charity calendar organised by the Barcelona club foundation and the Catalan newspaper Diario Sport. The money raised went to charities including UNICEF and various NGOs in Catalonia.

Members of the Barcelona team were photographed with children. Hundreds of families worked on the initiative for years and most of the photos are now forgotten, except for the children’s families who cherish personal memories.

Coincidentally, Yamal, Barça’s future teenage star, was paired with the man who would go on to win the Ballon d’Or eight times.

The bathing photo, as well as a number of other images from the shoot, including one showing Messi cradling a baby Yamal in a towel and another showing his mother Sheila Ebana helping to bathe her son, have been seen in public again as one was posted on social media on Thursday evening by Mounir Nasraouithe father of Barca’s Yamal, the record-breaking 16-year-old who is starring for Spain at this summer’s European Championship.

“It’s something incredible,” says Monfort. “At the time, no one could imagine that this baby would become who he is today — and you couldn’t know that Messi would become who he became.

“We are talking about 2007. Messi was just starting at Barca. Destiny plays an important role in these kinds of things.”

By December 2007, Messi had already won two La Liga titles and a Champions League triumph, but he was still an emerging talent in a squad packed with established stars including Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Thierry Henry and many other household names.

“They gave you a list of players — 12, one for each month,” Monfort says. “You have to take your time. Often, footballers come in and say, ‘Come on, let’s do it. I’m in a hurry; what do you want to do?’

“It can be a little cold, especially in a photo where you need interaction between two people who don’t know each other. And when one is six months old and the other is 20, it can be tricky, but it worked out pretty well.

“The mother helped a lot. Her presence was super necessary so that the baby didn’t find it too strange. You’re looking for a tender image — something sweet and nice.”

Lamine Yamal was a revelation for Spain at Euro 2024 (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Monfort says he always made sure that each family got a copy of the photos he took so that they could keep them for themselves. That was especially true in this case, as Yamal’s mother made the effort to bring him to Camp Nou from the city of Mataro, northeast of Barcelona.

“I would always give them a photo; it makes them really happy,” says Monfort. “The player might not be so worried, but the parents of the children would be very excited. They lived in Mataro, 40km from Barcelona. Not everyone would do that, with a young baby too. They would have to make the journey and then wait for the player to arrive; until everything was set up.”

Six and a half years later, Yamal began regularly taking the train from Mataro when he joined Barça’s youth academy, La Masia.

GO DEEPER

What makes Lamine Yamal such a special footballer?

His progress has been phenomenal: his La Liga debut at the age of 15 in April 2023, his international debut at 16 last September and now Yamal is a key part of the Spain team that beat Germany 2-1 on Friday to reach the semi-finals of Euro 2024.

“The chance of this happening is one in a million,” says Monfort. “It’s such a stroke of luck.

Lionel Messi is currently playing for Argentina in the Copa America (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

“It happens a bit more now because people have their phones and share pictures, but this is like the picture of Guardiola as a child applauding (former Barcelona and England manager) Terry Venables, carried on the shoulders of players. When Venables died, Pep posted the picture.”

This photo of the 15-year-old Guardiola, then a student at La Masia, a ball boy at Barca, later a player and coach at Barca and now manager of Manchester City, is from April 1986. Englishman Venables was then halfway through his three-year stint as Blaugrana coach and was hoisted into the air by players Paco Clos and Migueli after the team had come from 3-0 down to beat Gothenburg on penalties in the semi-finals of the European Cup.

Monfort still takes photographs, now for Madrid-based Diario AS. He was surprised when a former colleague from Diario Sport contacted him after the photo of Messi and Yamal was posted and went viral.

“He asked me, ‘Was this my picture?'” Monfort says. “I said, ‘Yes.’ He sent me the picture and I asked him, ‘Who’s the baby?’ and he started laughing and said, ‘Lamine, Lamine.’

“He told me that the father had put it on social media. At Sport they could hardly believe it. They had just noticed it too.

“It’s really surprising, all this. We take so many pictures, so many images. Some of them will remain.

“I am very happy that Lamine grew up to be a footballer and that I have this photo. That is especially nice in today’s football, where so much has to do with money and power.”

GO DEEPER

Spaniard Lamine Yamal passes school exams at Euro 2024

(Top photo: Diario Sport/Joan Monfort)