A viral photograph taken in 2007 shows a teenage Lionel Messi bathing a four-month-old baby in the Barcelona dressing room as part of a charity calendar for Sport newspaper and Unicef; that baby has since turned out to be Lamine Yamal, who now faces Messi's Argentina in the World Cup final. The coincidence, unearthed and shared by Yamal's father in 2024, has taken on an almost mythical quality in Spanish football, with national coach Luis de la Fuente describing it as something close to fate or divine intervention.

The picture was taken by photographer Joan Monfort, who set up the shoot after bathing his own daughter the night before; Yamal's mother, Sheila, had entered him into a draw to appear in the calendar, and neither family realised the child's later significance. The image resurfaced during Euro 2024, days before Yamal's breakthrough goal against France, and has since become emblematic of his rise as Messi's heir at Barcelona and now, potentially, on the world stage as the two meet in Sunday's World Cup final.