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

BarcelonaEvery football World Cup leaves a handful of images destined to become icons. The hand of God of Maradona, Pelé lifting the World Cup or Lionel Messi celebrating his first world title wearing a bisht, the black and gold robe that they placed on him before lifting the trophy in Qatar 2022. But if there is one photograph that has marked the preamble and a good 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 the 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 turned into one of the most extraordinary images football has ever gifted. "This photo is crazy because it's life. I took a picture 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 a minor, with Spain and with Messi's Copa América. Such an improbable coincidence also fueled doubts.

Faced with accusations of having been created with artificial intelligence – even jokingly hinted at by the mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani – Monfort is categorical: "The photo exists, if they don't want to believe it, I'm not too worried." 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 10 and ended up meeting in a World Cup final. "It's much easier to win the lottery," he concludes.

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, three photos a day," a "real 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, this possibility is included," she says, laughing.

The logistics were set up in the visiting locker room of the 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 boy or a baby, and when he came out in the arms of Lamine's mother, he got nervous," recalls Canals while describing the basin full of water. Almost like a blessing. "His heir," Monfort proudly proclaims.

A day before the photo, aware that it was Messi's turn to pose with a baby a few months old, the photographer had an epiphany 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 the Camp Nou," he recalls. Today he admits that all that prop "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 this baby would come and that day it was Messi's turn, just as it could have been Thierry Henry or Ronaldinho's turn on another day," explains Canals. The sessions left behind anecdotes of all kinds: children who missed school or who had their picture taken "with a temperature of 39 degrees because they were incredibly excited."

A photo that changes life

Monfort takes advantage of the global impact of the image to highlight his profession. "It's a good time to claim the work of photojournalists, we have 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 met the rest of the protagonists. "It would be nice, it will all come," he says.

Has photography changed their lives? Initially, 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 it for you in a very soft and very sweet way because, in the end, you leave a gift here".