When Joan Monfort captured Lionel Messi with a child for a charity calendar almost 17 years in the past, he foresaw the younger man’s future stardom in soccer.
Little did he know, that child would additionally rise to fame.
That child, featured in now-viral images, is none aside from Lamine Yamal, the Spanish prodigy who, at simply 16, is drawing comparisons to soccer legends.
Yamal, the youngest ever to symbolize Spain, made historical past because the youngest participant within the present European Championship held in Germany.
One of the long-forgotten images from 2007 resurfaced after Yamal’s father posted it on Instagram final week with the caption “the start of two legends.”
Monfort, 56, who works as a contract photographer for The Associated Press and others, mentioned the picture shoot passed off within the guests’ locker room at Barcelona’s Camp Nou within the autumn of 2007, when Yamal was only a few months previous.
Barcelona gamers posed with youngsters and their households for a calendar as a part of an annual charity drive by native newspaper Diario Sport and UNICEF. Monfort was in command of the picture shoots — and it simply so occurred that Messi was paired with Yamal’s household. His mom, who’s from Equatorial Guinea, stood subsequent to Messi and the child in one of many images.
“We made the calendar with the assistance of UNICEF. UNICEF carried out a raffle within the neighborhood of Roca Fonda in Mataro the place Lamine’s household lived. They entered the raffle to have their image taken on the Camp Nou with a Barça participant. And they received,” Monfort mentioned.
It wasn’t a straightforward task, he recalled, primarily as a result of Messi wasn’t certain the right way to work together with child Lamine, who was in a plastic tub for the shoot.
“Messi is a pretty introverted guy, he’s shy,” Monfort said. “He walked into one other locker room and located himself with a plastic tub filled with water and a child in it. It was sophisticated. At first, he didn’t even know the right way to maintain him.”
Messi was 20 on the time and already thought-about an enormous expertise, however it could take a few years earlier than he made his mark as probably the most excellent participant of his technology for Barcelona and Argentina.
Like Messi, Yamal has gone by way of Barcelona’s famend La Masia youth academy.
Despite his age, he has been one in all Spain’s finest gamers at Euro 2024, the place his workforce will face France within the semifinals on Tuesday. Yamal will flip 17 on Saturday, the day earlier than the ultimate in Berlin.
Monfort, 56, had no concept it was Yamal in these images from 2007 till a buddy messaged him as they began trending on-line.
He has had a protracted profession as a sports activities photographer since 1991, following Barcelona all over the world, however mentioned he has by no means skilled this stage of pleasure round any of his images.
“It’s very exciting to be associated with something that has caused such a sensation,” he said. “To inform you the reality, it’s a really good feeling.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com