Published : 29 Sep 2026, 01:14 PM
Updated : 29 Sep 2026, 01:14 PM
Lamine Yamal has revealed what he told Lionel Messi when the pair embraced after Spain beat Argentina in the 2026 World Cup final.
The 19-year-old approached Messi after Spain’s 1-0 extra-time victory in New Jersey, a moment that quickly became one of the defining images of the final given the pair’s shared Barcelona connection.
“I said thank you for everything you gave football. I don’t do things to look nice for the photo; that came from inside,” Yamal said in an interview with The Guardian.
The gesture carried added symbolism because Yamal has spent much of his young career being compared with Messi.
He also explained why the famous childhood photograph of Messi bathing him as a baby had remained largely out of public view for years.
The Barcelona winger said he had asked his father not to share it, adding: “He put it on Facebook once and I told him to take it down. Comparisons were too easy, that was all people would talk about.
“I wanted to be Lamine; I didn’t want to be Messi. I just wanted to get where I could get. I asked him to wait. When I’m Lamine, do what you want.”
Yamal has repeatedly tried to establish his own identity despite the comparisons with Messi, who also came through Barcelona’s academy and wore the club’s No. 10 shirt.
The two finally met on football’s biggest stage in July, with Spain beating Argentina to win their second World Cup title.
