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The adorable and spookily random viral picture of Lionel Messi with a baby Lamine Yamal is going super viral as people now see it as the GOAT anointing his successor

Michael White. Updated July 18th, 2026

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It’s World Cup final weekend, where Argentina will face off against Spain in New Jersey on Sunday night.

One of the most anticipated storylines of the match is that it will pit the GOAT Lionel Messi (39) against one of football’s biggest rising stars, Lamine Yamal (19).

And it seems this battle was destined from the start of Yamal’s life.

In 2007, Messi took part in a UNICEF fundraiser photoshoot. And one of the babies chosen – randomly from a draw – was a chubby-cheeked tot…named Lamine Yamal.

The coincidence is so out of this world that UNICEF felt the need to publicly verify it this week.

The Guardian provides more of the background to the picture, which was taken by Joan Monfort.

“The photograph was taken around Christmas 2007. Sport newspaper was putting together a charity calendar on behalf of Barcelona and Unicef, a studio set up in the away dressing room at the Camp Nou. Each player had a month and appeared with a child. Ronaldinho, the star, was July. Messi was January. Lamine Yamal was four months old. His mum, Sheila, had put him into a draw to take part. Monfort got the idea the night before when bathing his daughter, taking a plastic tub and a rubber duck with him. Although the baby was tiny and Messi was timid, with Sheila’s help he got a shot he was happy with.”

Messi has been asked about the picture a lot this week.

He said:

“That picture with Lamine, it’s something crazy. Life is full of surprises! Now we are facing each other in a final after a photo was taken of us when he was a baby, it’s just insane!”

Of course, “thanks” to AI, people had to get weird about it.

The picture has gone crazy viral all week – here’s a selection of the responses to it.

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Source: Twitter/X/UNICEF