Following Lamine Yamal's remarkable showing for Spain at the Euro's we look at how he was 'baptised' by Lionel Messi.
Check it out!
Read: Pirates Home Kit Inspiration Revealed
The story
Teenage sensation, Lamine Yamal, etched his name in history by becoming the youngest player to score in a men's European Championship, helping La Roja to a 2-1 victory over France in the semi-finals, to advance to the Euro 2024 final on Sunday.
France opened the scoring within the first 10 minutes curtesy of a Randal Kolo Muani's header from Kylian Mbappé cross. However, Spain quickly equalised through a spectacular long-range strike by 16-year-old Yamal.
Dani Olmo's winner sealed a memorable win for Spain, with Yamal hogging all the headlines for another stellar showing for Luis de la Fuente's side.
Yamal's brilliance has prompted social media users to re-share images of Lamine Yamal as a baby with FC Barcelona legend and seven-time Balon d'Or winner, Lionel Messi, in 2007.
The long-forgotten images of Messi and Yamal resurfaced after the latter's father posted it on Instagram last week, captioning it: "The beginning of two legends." Take a look:
Read: Gayton McKenzie: No More Trips For Superfans
A 20-year-old, Lionel Messi and six-month-old, Lamine Yamal were photographed together for a charity calendar. Messi at the time, was a rising star in the Blaugrana team under the tutelage of Frank Rijkaard.
Alongside several teammates, Messi participated in the photoshoot for the charity calendar organized by the Barcelona's club foundation and the Catalan newspaper Diario Sport.
The calendar aimed to raise funds for charities including UNICEF and various NGOs in Catalonia, featuring twelve players photographed with twelve children from Barcelona, each representing a different month of the year.
The photos were taken by Joan Monfort, who works as a freelance Spanish photographer for the Associated Press (AP).
"They signed up for the raffle to have their picture taken at the Camp Nou with a Barça player. And they won the raffle," said Monfort to AP.
Monfort went highlighted the difficulty of the shoot: "Messi is a pretty introverted guy, he's shy. 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."
The photographer mentioned that it was only when the photo started going viral online last week that he realised that the baby was Yamal:
"It's very exciting to be associated with something that has caused such a sensation. To tell you the truth it's a very nice feeling."
— Messismo (@Messismo10) July 9, 2024
— KickGPT (@KickGPT_) July 10, 2024
