The Spanish national team's and Barcelona's young, 16-year-old star Lamine Yamal got early close contact with top football. In fact, as a baby.
In pictures from a charity calendar 2007, he can be seen being rocked by a long-haired, slightly uncertain, new Barcelona star in the making – Lionel Messi.
The pictures, where Yamal's mother Sheila Ebana is also featured in some, were taken to benefit UNICEF, the UN's children's organization. Yamal and his family had participated in a lottery in the district in the Barcelona region where they lived, Roca Fonda in Mataró. The prize was to be photographed together with a Barcelona star at Camp Nou stadium. The calendar was released with pictures of players, families, and children.
The pictures of Messi and Yamal got new life when Yamal's father posted them on social media the other day with the addition "The beginning for two legends".
According to the photographer, Joan Monfort, it was not an easy photo shoot. Messi, according to Monfort, is a bit reserved and shy. And as a 20-year-old football talent, not very baby-friendly.
He didn't even know how to hold him at first, says Monfort.
