The Sporting Chronicle

In late 2007, UNICEF ran a raffle in the Roca Fonda district of Mataró, a town some twenty-five miles north-east of Barcelona. The prize was a place in a charity calendar produced by the club’s foundation and the newspaper Diario Sport: twelve players, twelve months, each photographed with a child from Catalonia. One local family entered, and won.

The player they drew, purely by chance, was a 20-year-old Lionel Messi. The baby they brought was a few months old. His name was Lamine Yamal.

Bathing the child was the photographer’s idea. Joan Monfort, shooting for Diario Sport and later the Associated Press, wanted something that would force the pair to interact. It was not easily won. Messi, shy then and shy now, found himself in a dressing room with a plastic tub, a rubber duck and an infant he did not know how to hold. Bit by bit, Monfort has said, it began to happen.

At the time, it was just a sweet photograph. No one imagined it would become part of football history.

Fifteen years later, Yamal made his Barcelona debut at just 15. At 16 he became the youngest scorer in European Championship history, striking in the semi-final against France; he turned 17 the day before Spain lifted the trophy, and sat his schoolwork throughout. In time, he would inherit Messi’s iconic No. 10 shirt at the club where both were made.

Now, this Sunday, the two men will face each other in the FIFA World Cup final — Argentina, the defending champions, against an unbeaten Spain, before more than 80,000 spectators in New Jersey.

Messi, now 39, is likely playing in his last World Cup final. Yamal, who turned 19 only days ago, is playing in his very first. One arrives to close the greatest career the game has known; the other, to open the next chapter of it.