There is something compelling about a World Cup Final that makes even non-soccer fans like me get caught up in the excitement. Before Sunday’s final between Spain and Argentina, I read an utterly fascinating story about a meeting 20 years ago between star Spanish player Lamine Yamal as a baby, and the football great, Lionel Messi, Argentina’s captain and named the All Time Men’s World Best Player.
Some background: Lamine Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoul, is from Morocco and his mother, Sheila Ebana, from Equatorial Guinea. They met in Barcelona, had him when they were teenagers and separated when he was three. His grandmother, Fatima Nasraoul, an immigrant from Morocco, played a big role in his upbringing. Lamine Yamal, now 19, grew up in Rocafonda, home to a large immigrant population with one of the highest poverty rates in Spain. In a recent radio interview he was asked about the pressure he as a young player faced in the World Cup Final. He replied that playing football “wasn’t real pressure”: “Look, my mum had me when she was 16. My dad had to go out and look for a life, sometimes picking up stuff in the streets to try to come back home with food for us. To me that is real pressure, not what I have.” The meeting between Messi and baby Lamine Yamal was in 2007. UNICEF and a Spanish newspaper had decided to produce an annual calendar to raise money for poor children and invited disadvantaged families to enter a lottery. The winners’ babies were each paired with a high-profile player from Barcelona Football Club for the 12 calendar photographs. Cute idea. His mother was one of the winners and her baby was randomly paired with Lionel Messi, then 20. Messi, in his football togs, had to bath baby Lamine Yamal for the photograph. It is a delightful pic, the baby smiling and looking directly into Messi’s eyes. His father purposely kept the photograph private to protect his son from “pressure of being likened to the Barcelona legend”, but released it just before the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament. It went viral. The two never met again – until Sunday’s World Cup Final. The day before the final Messi, 39, was asked about that photograph: “I was in a photograph when he was a baby and now to be facing each other in a World Cup Final, to me that is crazy. Lamine is an amazing player, one of the best in the world right now, without a doubt, and I wish him the best of luck.” Messi was devastated by Argentina’s loss to Spain, and moved to tears. Watching the aftermath on TV, I wondered if Lamine Yamal would go over to Messi. Eventually he did, walking to where Messi was sitting on the grass, defeated. As he approached, hand held out, Messi got up and they embraced. Social media have come up with all sorts of made-up versions of what the two men said in that brief moment, and perhaps we will never know for sure. But we don’t need to. The gesture said it all.
