When Joan Monfort captured Lionel Messi with a baby for a charity calendar nearly 17 years ago, he foresaw the young man's future stardom in football.
Little did he know, that baby would also rise to fame.
That baby, featured in now-viral photos, is none other than Lamine Yamal, the Spanish prodigy who, at just 16, is drawing comparisons to football legends.
Yamal, the youngest ever to represent Spain, made history as the youngest player in the current European Championship held in Germany.
One of the long-forgotten photos from 2007 resurfaced after Yamal’s father posted it on Instagram last week with the caption "the beginning of two legends."
Monfort, 56, who works as a freelance photographer for The Associated Press and others, said the photo shoot took place in the visitors’ locker room at Barcelona’s Camp Nou in the autumn of 2007, when Yamal was just a few months old.
Barcelona players posed with children and their families for a calendar as part of an annual charity drive by local newspaper Diario Sport and UNICEF. Monfort was in charge of the photo shoots — and it just so happened that Messi was paired with Yamal’s family. His mother, who is from Equatorial Guinea, stood next to Messi and the baby in one of the photos.
"We made the calendar with the help of UNICEF. UNICEF conducted a raffle in the neighborhood of Roca Fonda in Mataro where Lamine’s family lived. They entered the raffle to have their picture taken at the Camp Nou with a Barça player. And they won," Monfort said.
It wasn’t an easy assignment, he recalled, mainly because Messi wasn’t sure how to interact with baby Lamine, who was in a plastic tub for the shoot.
"Messi is a pretty introverted guy, he’s shy," Monfort said. "He walked into another locker room and found himself with a plastic tub full of water and a baby in it. It was complicated. At first, he didn’t even know how to hold him."
Messi was 20 at the time and already considered a big talent, but it would take a couple of years before he made his mark as the most outstanding player of his generation for Barcelona and Argentina.
Like Messi, Yamal has gone through Barcelona’s renowned La Masia youth academy.
Despite his age, he has been one of Spain’s best players at Euro 2024, where his team will face France in the semifinals on Tuesday. Yamal will turn 17 on Saturday, the day before the final in Berlin.
Monfort, 56, had no idea it was Yamal in those photos from 2007 until a friend messaged him as they started trending online.
He has had a long career as a sports photographer since 1991, following Barcelona around the world, but said he has never experienced this level of excitement around any of his photos.
"It’s very exciting to be associated with something that has caused such a sensation," he said. "To tell you the truth, it’s a very nice feeling."