Why photos of Lionel Messi with baby Lamine Yamal hidden until now?

Updated: 13 Jul, 2024 • 0 • min read

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Why photos of Lionel Messi with baby Lamine Yamal hidden until now?

Photo: Getty Images

Spain and Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal has explained why viral photos of him as a baby with Lionel Messi were kept secret until now.

Photos of Messi, who was only 20 years old at the time, bathing a six-month old Yamal surfaced earlier this month.

Little did anybody involved realise that a footballing torch may have also been passed at the same time.

Photo: @FCBarcelona

Yamal has been compared to the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner since making his debut for Barcelona at the age of 15 in 2023.

The photos have only added to the hype around the 16-year-old and he has revealed that is exactly why they were kept hidden for so long.

READ MORE: Spain could break German employment law for playing 'underage' Lamine Yamal

Speaking to Jijantes, the teenage sensation said:

Obviously, in the moment the photos were taken I wasn't conscious of what was going on at that age.

My dad had the photos saved and they never came out, basically because we didn't want the comparisons with Messi.

No one would be annoyed to be compared with the best to ever play the game, but it's something that could work against you because you're never going to be like him.

The photos were taken in the away team locker room at Camp Nou in the fall of 2007 by freelance photographer Joan Monfort.

It was part of a series of photographs taken for a charity calendar organised by Catalan newspaper Diario SPORT in conjunction with UNICEF.

Monfort told The Associated Press about behind the story of the photoshoot:

We made the calendar with the help of UNICEF. So UNICEF did a raffle in the neighborhood of Roca Fonda in Mataró, where Lamine's family lived.

They signed up for the raffle to have their picture taken at the Camp Nou with a Barça player. And they won the raffle.