Sometimes the universe just decides to flex. You’ve probably seen the photo by now—a long-haired, slightly awkward 20-year-old Lionel Messi hunched over a plastic blue tub, carefully bathing a tiny, grinning infant. It looks like a classic "chosen one" prophecy from a movie. People online even joked that Messi was "baptizing" the kid or passing on his magical footballing powers through the bathwater.
But here is the wild part: it is 100% real. The baby in that tub was a six-month-old Lamine Yamal.
Back in 2007, nobody knew this kid from the Rocafonda neighborhood in Mataró would become the youngest scorer in European Championship history. They didn't even know if Messi would stay healthy enough to become the GOAT. It was just a Tuesday. Or maybe a Wednesday. The point is, the Lamine Yamal Messi baby photo is the greatest "coincidence" in the history of sports, and the story behind how it actually happened is even more human than the legend suggests.
The Raffle That Changed Football History
This wasn't some calculated marketing stunt by Nike or Adidas to link two generations of stars. It was actually a lot more wholesome.
The whole thing was part of a charity drive for UNICEF and the Catalan newspaper Diario Sport. Every year, they did a calendar where Barcelona players posed with local kids. To find the kids, UNICEF held a raffle in neighborhoods where families might need a bit of a lift. Lamine’s family lived in Rocafonda, a humble, hardworking area about 40 minutes from the Camp Nou.
They entered. They won.
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Lamine’s mother, Sheila Ebana, took her six-month-old son to the stadium, likely just excited to get a nice photo for the wall. She ended up in the visitors' locker room at the Camp Nou with a young Argentinian who was still a bit of a mystery himself.
"He Didn't Know How to Hold Him"
Joan Monfort is the guy who took the shot. He’s been a freelance photographer for decades, but he admits this specific session was... awkward.
Messi was 20. He was incredibly shy—painfully so. Monfort has gone on record saying that Leo didn't really know what to do with a baby. He wasn't a father yet; he was just a kid himself who lived for the ball and didn't do much talking.
"Messi is a very introverted guy, he's shy," Monfort recalled. "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."
At first, Messi didn't even know how to hold Lamine. There are a series of photos from that day, not just the bathtub one. In some, you see Lamine’s mother helping out, basically coaching the future world champion on how to not drop her son. Eventually, Lamine woke up, started laughing, and the "magic" happened. Monfort used a rubber duck to get the baby to look at the camera.
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That duck? It belonged to Monfort's daughter. He’d brought it from home because he knew getting a baby to cooperate in a cold locker room was going to be a nightmare.
Why the Photo Only Just Resurfaced
For nearly 17 years, these photos sat in an archive or in a dusty copy of a 2008 charity calendar. Monfort forgot about them. The world forgot about them.
Then, during Euro 2024, Lamine Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, decided to break the internet. He posted one of the shots on Instagram with the caption, "The beginning of two legends."
Suddenly, the football world went into a meltdown. People thought it was AI. In an era where we can generate a video of Messi riding a dragon in five seconds, it’s hard to trust your eyes. But the archives don't lie. Diario Sport confirmed it. Monfort confirmed it.
Even Lamine’s father joked about the "blessing" aspect of the photo. When asked if Messi had blessed his son, he gave a classic proud-dad answer: "Or maybe it was Lamine who blessed Leo."
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Living in the Shadow of the Bath
It’s a lot of pressure, isn't it? Imagine being 17 years old and having a photo of the greatest player to ever live bathing you.
Lamine has handled it surprisingly well. He’s gone through La Masia, the same academy Messi did. He plays the same position. He has that same "glue" on his left foot. But he’s also been vocal about wanting to be his own person. He recently said that while he's happy to have the photo, he wants people to remember the name Lamine Yamal for what he does on the pitch, not just for a lucky raffle win in 2007.
The coincidence is statistically staggering. Barcelona has thousands of kids in its orbit. Thousands of families enter these raffles. For the one baby who would grow up to be the "chosen one" to be paired with the guy who was already the "chosen one" is a one-in-a-billion event.
What This Means for Collectors and Fans
If you happen to have one of those original 2008 UNICEF/Sport calendars sitting in a garage in Catalonia, don't throw it away. It is officially one of the most valuable pieces of modern football memorabilia.
Beyond the money, though, the Lamine Yamal Messi baby story serves as a reminder of how small the world of football really is. It links the era of Ronaldinho and young Messi to the new era of Lamine and the Gen Z stars.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Collectors:
- Verify the Source: If you see "videos" of this event circulating, be careful. While the photos are 100% authentic, several AI-generated videos of the "baptism" have been debunked. Stick to the Joan Monfort originals.
- Memorabilia Check: Look for the 2008 Solidarity Calendar (Calendari Solidari). Original prints are becoming high-ticket items at sports auctions.
- Follow the Journey: Lamine is still technically a minor for a bit longer. Watching his development at Barcelona is the only way to see if the "blessing" was real or if it’s just the most poetic coincidence in sports history.
The reality is that no amount of bathwater can give a kid the ability to curl a ball into the top corner against France at 16 years old. That part? That’s all Lamine. But the photo? That’s just the universe having a laugh.