Messi and Yamal to face off in 2026 World Cup final

Messi and Yamal to face off in 2026 World Cup final

The FIFA World Cup 2026 final will feature a confrontation that transcends a typical championship match. On Sunday, July 19, at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, 39-year-old Lionel Messi and 19-year-old Lamine Yamal will face each other for the first time on a football pitch as Argentina meets Spain.

The matchup is the culmination of a poetic circle that began nearly two decades ago. In December 2007, a 20-year-old Messi participated in a charity calendar photoshoot organized by the FC Barcelona Foundation and the newspaper Diario Sport to benefit UNICEF and other Catalan charities. The project involved a raffle where families from the Rocafonda neighborhood in Mataró were chosen to be photographed with players at the Camp Nou. One of the winners was the family of Lamine Yamal, who was then only five months old.

The resulting images, which remained a family secret until 2024, show Messi bathing the infant Yamal in a small plastic bucket of soapy water. Other photos from the session depict Messi cradling the baby in a towel and Yamal’s mother, Sheila Ebana, assisting with the bath.

Photographer Joan Monfort, who captured the images, described the shoot as a "difficult shot" because of Messi's naturally shy and introverted personality. Monfort recalled that Messi did not initially know how to hold the baby and that interaction was complicated at first. But the photographer noted that "bit by bit, it started to happen," eventually resulting in a "pretty good photo."

The images returned to public view during the 2024 European Championship after Yamal's father, Mounir Nasraoui, shared them on social media, captioning the post The beginning of two legends ❤️. Monfort, who works as a freelancer for Agence France-Presse and Diario AS, said he was unaware the baby in his photos was the future star until a former colleague alerted him that the images had gone viral.

Since that meeting, Yamal's career has mirrored Messi's early trajectory. Both are left-footed forwards who began their careers at an unusually young age and rose through FC Barcelona's La Masia youth academy. Yamal made his La Liga debut in April 2023 at age 15 and his international debut for Spain in September of that year at age 16. He was a key component of the Spain team that won Euro 2024. At the club level, Yamal now wears the iconic No 10 shirt for Barcelona, while he will enter the World Cup final wearing the dorsal number 19 — the same number Messi wore for his official debut with the club.

The connection between the two has been acknowledged by the players themselves. In December 2024, when asked which player reminded him of himself, Messi stated, If I have to choose someone, because of the age and because of the future that he has, I've heard that they have chosen Lamine Yamal -- and without doubt, [it's him] for me too. He added that Yamal is the present and has a huge future.

The path to the final was secured through high-stakes semifinals. Spain defeated France 2-0 on July 14. Argentina advanced after a 2-1 victory over England on July 15, with Messi providing the assists for the winning goal in the second minute of injury time.

With Argentina and Spain on opposite sides of the tournament bracket, this final is the first time the two have ever confronted each other in a professional match. Yamal previously expressed his desire to the media to face Messi in a final, noting that the two had not been able to do so during the Finalisíma.

The match is scheduled for Sunday, July 19, at 3 p.m. ET at the New York-New Jersey Stadium. It marks a potential reunion decades in the making and a deciding moment for both players: one seeking to cement his legacy with a second World Cup trophy and the other looking to secure his first star.