Yamal, Messi & Destiny in one shot: What are the odds!

Joan Montfort/Barcelona/Diario Sport

Where were you at 16? Ask yourself.

You could be in rooms playing video games, or reading for your certificate exams. Or playing football in an academy, still some distance away from first team action or complaining about everything including the hormonal changes of your pubertal stage.

You probably had no idea how your life’s course will be charted. Well, for footballers, they know where they’re headed but are not sure of the many roads they’ll ply. During those years, many photos of you would have been shot but how popular they become depends on what life has in store for you.

Sixteen-year-old Lamine Yamal is painting German cities red (no pun intended). That’s what he’s doing at 16. And he’s getting the eyes of the world focused on him in the process.

Spain are living up to their colour and leaving noses bloodied. Sometimes, it’s Nico Williams, other times it’s Dani Olmo, Fabian Ruiz, Alvaro Morata and everyday, it’s Rodri playing the orchestra but against France on Tuesday night, it was Yamal delivering spectacle at the biggest stage - at 16 - where nothing near perfect expressions is expected.

It’s not wayward to see a 16-year-old footballer stealing the headlines for his good displays but what are the odds of such a player scoring against the meanest defence in the semifinal of a European championship? The interesting thing is many aren’t surprised. His game is way above his years. Yamal’s coordination, balance, vision, decisions are exceptional for a footballer who would not be hung to dry if his decisions were worse. At that age, nothing is expected to be complete. The plaudits that come with Yamal are because he’s looking close to perfect - at 16.

Just when you thought that’s all about his star, life presents a picture made for perfection. The sort of picture that opens an argument that the camera is man’s greatest invention. The picture that brings tomorrow in touch with today and keeps the future in close proximity with the present.

It’s not common to take a photo that sees a 20-year-old Lionel Messi, then marching close to the peak of his powers, yet still some distance from the pinnacle of his prowess bathing a 6-month-old Lamine (Yamal) in a promotional photo for Barcelona. Yamal is probably the biggest thing to come out of La Masia since Messi and that photo could only have been a shot of destiny.

The photo of a very young Messi and baby Yamal is fortuitous. What brought them together from such an early age is special, and Joan Montfort, the man who took the photo agrees such photos could only have been destiny.

“It’s something incredible,” Monfort told The Athletic. “Back then, nobody could imagine that this baby would be who he is now — and you could not have known that Messi would become who he became, either.

“We are talking about 2007. Messi was only beginning at Barca then. Destiny plays an important role in these things.”

Some of such photos placing the present side-by-side with the future have been taken. And it’s not just about the photos, it’s about the perfection of the art, similarity of those trade, journey and life; the union of dreams already lived and realities still to  come. It’s like the photo of a 15-year-old Pep Guardiola clapping for former Barcelona coach, Terry Venables. Guardiola sits on top of the coaching pyramid today. At 15, just beside one of the best of his age, he was only a boy who dreamt.

15-year-old Guardiola claps for former Barcelona coach, Terry Venables (hoisted on shoulders)

Little Kylian Mbappe took a photo with Thierry Henry and the future was moulded in the past. The first French footballer many likened the France captain to was Henry, one of the greatest footballers in the history of Les Bleus and football.

Little Kylian and Thierry Henry

They both cut their teeth at AS Monaco, won the World Cup and are two of French football’s biggest names. Mbappe is well on course and may even surpass Henry but what are the odds! What brought them together? Is the future ever so clear?

Cori ‘Coco’ Gauff adores Venus Williams. She’d watched Venus, in her terrific years of top level tennis and clapped for her. Gauff was 8 at the time and she’s a US Open Champion today. Both players would eventually be on the same court as opposition, sharing so much adoration and respect. That’s destiny.

Coco Gauff and Venus Williams - destiny!

The shots don’t stop coming, and more attention is now being paid to the legacies set by photos. Today, we may have seen tomorrow drawn closer in a child whose baby steps may soon become giant strides. It’s only a matter of time and such time travellers those legendary pictures are.