Joan Monfort’s world has turned upside down.
The Barcelona-based photographer has been a regular at sporting events around Spain for over 30 years, but a photoshoot he did back in 2007 has recently resurfaced, turning him into a global superstar.
Monfort was the photographer who captured a then-20-year-old Lionel Messi holding a baby as part of a photoshoot for UNICEF and Barcelona, with the Argentine soccer star also posing with the inflant in the bath alongside his mother.
As it turns out, greatness was holding soon to be greatness. The baby in question is Barcelona and Spain’s teenager sensation Lamine Yamal, who turned 17 on July 13.
Yamal has been the breakout performer at Euro 2024, with his stunning recordbreaking goal in the semifinal against France cementing his place as world football’s most exciting talent.
“I’m just living in a dream,” Monfort tells CNN’s Don Riddell as the photographer reflected on the rollercoaster of emotions he’s experienced over the last few days.
‘The beginning of two legends’
The photos of Messi holding Yamal grabbed the world’s attention when his dad posted a picture on his Instagram account of the baby’s mum and the Argentine smiling at the infant in a soapy bath with the caption: “The beginning of two legends.”
Then early in July, Monfort received a phone call out of the blue.
“One colleague at the newspaper, SPORT, called me at 12 o’clock in the night and said to me: ‘Is this your picture?’” says Monfort. “And I answered: ‘Yes, this is my picture. I [took] this picture years ago.’ And I asked: ‘Who is the baby?’ And he [told] me the baby is Lionel Messi, of course. And the other baby is Lamine Yamal.”
Before the call, Monfort admits that he had forgotten about the photo and that he didn’t know who the baby was who had photographed with Messi, explaining that the photoshoot came as part of a fundraising and awareness project between Barça and UNICEF.
The club and UNICEF ran the project each year, producing a calendar of the team’s stars with locals from different backgrounds.
A few years prior, the photoshoot had involved Barcelona and Brazil superstar Ronaldinho posing for pictures with Monfort’s daughter, Jana.
Yamal was raised in the neighborhood of Rocafonda in Mataró, a city close to Barcelona. Nowadays, his celebration after scoring involves using his fingers to make the numbers three, zero and four in front of his chest – it’s a reference to the last three numbers which constitute the 08304 postcode of hte Rocafonda neighborhood.
Monfort says that Yamal’s family won a raffle to be participants in the photoshoot, while Jana says that they were appropriate applications because of the families “economic problems.”
During the photoshoot, Monfort remembers Messi being “very shy” but “very professional” while he took the snaps with Yamal.
Jana, who says she was five at the time of the shoot, recalls the rubber duck which appears in some of the photos. This duck just so happened to be a regular part in her bath routines at home for years but unfortunately, has since been lost.
After the photoshoot, memory of the photo fell into the deep recesses of his mind as he focused on other work – he was a regular at many of Barcelona’s successes with Messi on the pitch, while he also covered the the Olympics, Formula One and MotoGP.
Even when he captured a then 15-year-old Yamal becoming the youngest player in over a century to make his Barcelona debut last year or when he was watching the teenager dazzle in his early performances at Euro 2024, Monfort had no idea he’d already snapped photos of the Spain international when he was a baby.
It was only in the hours after the then-16-year-old Yamal had provided an assist and played a vital role in Spain’s quarterfinal victory over tournament host Germany that Monfort was told of his prior meeting with Yamal.
“It’s kind of crazy. I’ve never thought that my dad would do something like this,” Jana told CNN. “I mean, I love his work but I just wasn’t, I wasn’t prepared for this. I don’t know. It’s been crazy.
“He’s very discrete. He’s actually not enjoying it. Well, maybe for a few days. But afterwards he’s just like, not that kind of person.”
Monfort says he is “proud” of the photo, as he reflected “one in a billion” moment.
Both Messi and Yamal came through Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy and made their debuts at young ages, though the Argentina was 18 when he made his international debut.
Messi is Barça’s record goalscorer with 672 goals. He’s also played the most games, won the most trophies, and secured the most Balón d’Or awards in the club’s history.
