The story behind Messi and Yamal’s viral photo

Images of a young Lionel Messi bathing a four-month-old Lamine Yamal has gone viral on social media recently, with fans astonished to see that Barcelona's greatest-ever player and the club's youngest-ever La Liga scorer crossed paths over 16 years ago.

The images were first shared by Yamal's father on Instagram and after that several media houses shared it on their social media accounts, making it go viral in a matter of minutes.

Photo: FACEBOOK

The photos were taken in December of 2007, as part of a collaboration between Barcelona and UNICEF to design a charity calendar involving players of the club.

UNICEF spent a few months choosing from children in Catalonia and then a lottery was arranged between interested participants and Yamal's parents were one of the lucky few to get selected.

Photo: FACEBOOK

Yamal's parents were invited to Camp Nou in December 2007, for the photoshoot. Messi, who was in the early years of his career with Barcelona's senior side but was already earmarked for greatness, got randomly paired with Yamal. The photos were taken in the Barcelona dressing room.

16 years later, Messi is no longer part of that dressing room, leaving the club under unfortunate circumstances after winning every trophy with it, while Yamal has become a permanent part of that dressing room with fans hoping he would go on to scale great heights with the Catalan club.