When Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal line-up against each other in the World Cup final on Sunday it will mark the closing of an incredible full circle moment that has been two decades in the making.In 2007, a 20-year-old Messi and Yamal, born in July of that year, posed together in a photo organized by UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund), the global agency which provides humanitarian and development to children and mothers worldwide.
Yamal's family had entered and won a raffle to pose with a Barcelona player for a 2008 UNICEF calendar.
In one photo from the shoot, Messi is seen helping Yamal's mother, Sheila Ebana, give the smiling five-month-old boy a bath in a blue plastic tub.
"The photographer, Joan Monfort, has said that Lamine Yamal stole Messi's heart because he was always smiling," UNICEF Catalan's Laia Ruich said on the organization's website.
Fast forward nearly 20 years, and now Messi and Yamal are sharing football's greatest stage.
