Defending champions Argentina take on reigning European champions Spain on Sunday afternoon in a World Cup final shimmering with subplots and story lines.
Issued on: 19/07/2026 - 14:26
3 min Reading time
Argentina go into the game at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey attempting to become only the third team after Italy and Brazil to brandish back-to-back titles. Spain will try to repeat their feat of 2008 and 2010 when they won the European crown and followed it up with the World Cup. There is also the no small matter of Argentine superstar Lionel Messi sharing the same field as Spain's wunderkind Lamine Yamal. The 19-year-old, who featured in the surge to the European title two years ago in Germany, has been anointed Messi's successor primarily on the back of his prodigious performances at Messi's former club Barcelona. The link was strengthened after a photograph emerged from June 2007 of Messi cradling the infant Yamal in his arms during a charity photoshoot in Barcelona.
In June 2007, a 20-year-old Lionel Messi took part in a photo shoot in which he was photographed with Lamine Yamal. © Joan Monfort/AP
