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Lionel Messi's claims about Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal winning the Ballon d'Or one day resurfaced after the 17-year-old bagged his first nomination for France Football's coveted award.
Widely considered one of the most promising emerging talents in football, Yamal was key to Spain's Euro 2024 victory this summer. He has been one of Barcelona's breakthrough stars since his senior team debut in the 2022-23 season.
Shortly after winning his record eighth Ballon d'Or award in 2023, Messi had named Yamal as one of the future stars who could win the coveted award, telling L'Equipe:
"There is a generation of players that can compete in the coming years. There are the cases of Haaland, Mbappé, Vinicius. ... I don’t know, there are many young people."
The Argentine legend continued:
“Lamine, who is now very young and is already playing at Barcelona and being important ... will play a prominent role and fight for it in the future too. There are always good players. A very nice stage is coming to for us to enjoy.”
Lionel Messi was not nominated for this year's Ballon d'Or, marking the first time since 2006. Despite being a part of Argentina's 2024 Copa America triumph, Messi has been out of action after injuring his ankle in the 1-0 extra-time win over Colombia.
Meanwhile, Lamine Yamal began his 2024-25 campaign with Barcelona with a goal and four assists in the opening four La Liga games. The La Masia graduate is widely considered to be Messi's awaited successor at the Camp Nou.
When Lionel Messi bathed baby Lamine Yamal in 2007
Duing Euro 2024, Lamine Yamal's father took to Instagram to share photos of a 20-year-old Lionel Messi bathing a baby Lamine Yamal for a 2007 photoshoot. The photos went viral on the internet, with many questioning the coincidence of Yamal ending up at Messi's boyhood club Barcelona.
However, the photographer behind the images, Joan Monfort, confirmed the legitimacy of the photos. While speaking to CNN. Monfort explained that he took the images of a young Messi bathing a child as a part of a photoshoot in association with UNICEF and FC Barcelona.
"I’m just living in a dream. One colleague at the newspaper, SPORT, called me at 12 o’clock in the night and said to me: ‘Is this your picture?’”
"And I answered: ‘Yes, this is my picture. I (took) this picture years ago.’ And I asked: ‘Who is the baby?’ And he (told) me the baby is Lionel Messi, of course. And the other baby is Lamine Yamal.”
At the time of this image, Yamal was only a few months old and his parents had reportedly taken part in a raffle. As a part of winning the contest, they could get Yamal's pictures taken with Messi, who was a rising star at that time.
As per Monfort, the photoshoot was a part of a fundraising project, and the images were used for the UNICEF calender. The images are now considered iconic after Yamal's breakthrough in the game.
