一张拍摄于19年前的照片，近日再度在社交媒体上引发热议。
画面中，20岁的梅西正小心翼翼地为一个5个月大的婴儿洗澡——那个婴儿，正是如今的西班牙足球新星亚马尔。彼时谁也不会想到，这两位主角有朝一日会在世界杯决赛的赛场上相遇。
随着阿根廷在世界杯半决赛中以2比1逆转英格兰、挺进决赛，39岁的梅西将率领球队迎战19岁的亚马尔。这将是两人职业生涯首次在正式比赛中交锋，而他们的缘分，早在2007年便已埋下伏笔。
With Argentina's late 2-1 comeback win over England on Wednesday, Lionel Messi will now face Spain's Lamine Yamal, the 19-year-old phenom widely touted as his heir apparent — or the closest thing to it — in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final on Sunday, July 19.
But this weekend's title bout won't be the first meeting between Messi, 39, and Yamal. The two actually crossed paths nearly 19 years ago in Spain, when Messi, then 20 and playing for FC Barcelona, gave baby Yamal a bath — and was, unbelievably, photographed doing it.
梅西（左）亚马尔（右）
彼时，效力于巴塞罗那的梅西受邀参加由西班牙《每日体育报》与联合国儿童基金会（UNICEF）联合举办的慈善日历拍摄活动，与通过抽签选中的婴幼儿家庭合影，亚马尔一家幸运中选。摄影师蒙特福特（Joan Monfort）记录下了梅西怀抱婴儿亚马尔并为他洗澡的系列画面。
So how did this even happen? The story goes that freelance photographer Joan Monfort was hired to snap a series of portraits of various Barça players posing with children and their families as part of a 2008 charity calendar organised by newspaper Diario Sport, in conjunction with UNICEF.
"UNICEF did a raffle in the neighborhood of Roca Fonda in Mataró, where Lamine's family lived," Monfort told the AP. "They signed up for the raffle to have their picture taken at the Camp Nou (Barcelona's stadium) with a Barça player. And they won the raffle."
这组照片直到2024年夏天才重新进入公众视野。彼时，16岁的亚马尔凭借在欧洲杯上的出色表现迅速走红，其父亲穆尼尔·纳斯拉维（Mounir Nasraoui）在社交媒体上发布其中一张照片，并配文：“两位传奇的开始。”
照片曝光后，不少球迷一度怀疑其真实性，认为画面过于巧合，甚至像是AI生成。随后，美联社对照片的真实性予以证实，并公布了更多当年拍摄的底片。
Yamal's father, Mounir Nasraoui, posted a crop of one of the photos from the shoot on Instagram. "The beginning of two legends," he wrote.
At first, soccer fans couldn't believe the image was real. The smooth studio glow. The surreal situation. (Why a bath?) Messi's goofy, beatific gaze. Not to mention the impossible odds. It had to be AI, right?
But the Associated Press quickly confirmed that Nasraoui's post was, in fact, authentic, and published several other images from the shoot as well.
蒙特福特回忆，当年的梅西性格腼腆，面对婴儿显得有些手足无措。“他走进更衣室时，看到一个装满水的塑料浴盆，里面躺着一个婴儿。”他说，梅西起初甚至不知该如何抱起亚马尔。
Messi joined 5-month-old Yamal and his mother Sheila Ebana — who also appears in some of the photos — in the away team locker room at Camp Nou in the fall of 2007. Monfort said Messi was "very introverted and shy", and initially "did not know how to hold (Yamal)".
"It was very difficult," Monfort explained. "He entered the changing room to find a plastic bathtub filled with water and a baby inside."
19年过去，当年的婴儿已成足坛最炙手可热的新星。亚马尔15岁完成巴萨一线队首秀，刷新队史最年轻出场纪录，此后随队夺得三座西甲冠军和2024年欧洲杯，本届世界杯又助西班牙闯入决赛。
梅西日前谈及这位后辈时表示，新一代球员中有很多优秀球员，但如果让他选择一位，基于年龄、已经取得的成就和未来的发展潜力，他会选择亚马尔，“毫无疑问，在我看来，他就是最好的。”
"There's a new generation of footballers who are very good and have many years ahead of them, but if I have to choose one, because of his age, what he's done so far, and the future he can have, it's Lamine," Messi recently said about his younger counterpart. "There's no doubt, for me he's the best."
而梅西早已书写属于自己的传奇。19年前的一次偶然同框，如今演变成世界杯决赛的首次交锋，也让这场巅峰对决多了一份跨越时代的意味。
来源：AOL
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