The creators of Messi's bath for Lamine Yamal: "The bathtub today would be worth millions, but it disappeared"

BarcelonaEvery World Cup leaves a handful of images destined to become icons. The hand of God by Maradona, Pelé lifting the World Cup or Lionel Messi celebrating his first world title wearing a bisht, the black and gold robe they placed on him before lifting the trophy in Qatar 2022. But if there is one photograph that has marked the prelude and a large part of the narrative of the 2026 World Cup, it is a very different one: a twenty-year-old Messi bathing a baby who, almost two decades later, has become his rival in a World Cup final. That baby was Lamine Yamal.

The photograph is the work of Joan Monfort, today a photographer freelance by Associated Press, and was taken in 2007 for a charity calendar produced by publicist Oriol Canals. Both worked at the newspaper Sport. What was supposed to be another snapshot from a charity event ended up becoming one of the most extraordinary images football has ever gifted. "This photo is crazy, because it's life. I took a photo of myself when he was a baby... and today we are both competing in a World Cup. It's crazy. He's one of the best in the world and I wish him a lot of luck because his success will also be Barça's success," Messi reacted the day before the final.

Almost twenty years later, Monfort and Canals talk to ARA after days of many interviews. "It's the first one we've done together", says Joan, laughing, after having granted "30, 40 or 50, I don't know", to media outlets such as the New York Times, CBS, Clarín or the BBC. Both acknowledge that it is a completely unexpected situation.

The photo came to light when Lamine Yamal's father, Mounir Nasraoui, published it on Instagram in July 2024. It coincided with the Eurocup that the Rocafonda winger was playing, still underage, with Spain and with Messi's Copa América. Such an improbable coincidence also fueled doubts.

Faced with accusations of being created with artificial intelligence – even jokingly hinted at by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani – Monfort is categorical: "The photo exists, if they don't want to believe it, I don't care much." He assures that he keeps all the evidence "in a safe." Even today, the chain of coincidences surprises him: "The probability is one in 635 trillion." That both wore 19, debuted with Barça, inherited the 10, and ended up meeting in a World Cup final. "It's much easier to win the lottery," he adds.

Canals recalls that the calendar was born from an idea that mixed "Christmas, Barça players, and children." The profits were destined for Unicef. The first edition, in 2005, was made "in four or five days, at three photos per day," an "absolute madness." Over the years, they wanted the calendar to be "a more plural representation of what Catalonia really is." With the help of Unicef and the Casal dels Infants del Raval, the participating families arrived. Among them, that of Sheila, Lamine's mother. "Within these trillions comes this possibility," she says, laughing.

The logistics were set up in the away dressing room at Camp Nou after training sessions. That day it was Messi's turn, who arrived at the set after showering. "He was very tense. You could tell he had never held a child or a baby, and when he comes out in the arms of Lamine's mother, he got nervous," recalls Canals as he describes the bathtub full of water. Almost like a blessing. "His heir," Monfort proudly proclaims.

One day before the photo, aware that it was Messi's turn to pose with a baby a few months old, the photographer had an idea while bathing his daughter, who was also very young at the time. "I took the same little bathtub I bathed her in, the soap, the rubber duck, and the towel. I left everything ready and the next day we took it to Camp Nou," he recalls. Today he admits that all that props "would be worth millions" at auction, but "it must have disappeared in some move."

How did little Lamine Yamal end up in the arms of young Messi? "It was thanks to Unicef, who told us that that day that baby would come and that day it was Messi, just as another day it could have been Thierry Henry or Ronaldinho," explains Canals. The sessions yielded anecdotes of all kinds: children who missed school or who had their photograph taken "with 39 degrees fever because they were incredibly excited."

A photo that changes life

Monfort takes advantage of the image's global impact to assert his profession. "It's a good time to champion the work of photojournalists, we've always been a bit mistreated." He argues that photographs like this one remind us that "photos have a person behind them." Although he has met Lamine Yamal again on a day he was covering a Barça training session, he has not yet done so with the rest of the protagonists. "It would be nice, it will all come," he says.

Has photography changed their lives? To begin with, both answer no, but they quickly qualify it. "It's a beautiful miracle and it has changed my life in terms of seeing things in a beautiful way," assures Canals. Monfort adds: "It will change you in a very gentle and very sweet way because, in the end, you leave a gift here."