Lionel Messi will become the oldest outfield player to appear in a World Cup final on Sunday as Spain’s Lamine Yamal seeks to join an elite group of teenage winners.
The match at the MetLife Stadium will be the first meeting between Argentina’s Messi and the player who has succeeded him as Barcelona’s new homegrown idol.
The only player to appear in a final at an older age than Messi is Dino Zoff, the Italy goalkeeper who was 40 in 1982.
Yamal, in sharp contrast, only turned 19 last Monday, the day before Spain beat France 2-0 in their semi-final.
Everything has happened at warp speed for Yamal, who made his Barcelona debut at the tender age of 15.
His first cap for Spain came when he was 16, and he had only just celebrated his 17th birthday when he helped La Roja beat England in the Euro 2024 final — he was named the best young player at that tournament.
Yamal was the runner-up to Ousmane Dembele in last year’s Ballon d’Or and now has the opportunity to join the select group of players to have won the World Cup as a teenager.
“He is a global icon at the age of 19 and has the chance to do something historic, although we will be doing everything to stop him,” said Messi on Friday.
Yamal was injured coming into the World Cup and there were even doubts over whether he would participate at all after he missed the end of the season with Barcelona.
“I was afraid it might be serious and, above all, that even if it wasn’t serious, I could suffer a setback and end up missing the World Cup,” Yamal admitted.
– ‘Genius’ –
He was only used as a substitute in Spain’s opening 0-0 draw with Cape Verde, and was taken off at half-time after scoring in the 4-0 victory over Saudi Arabia.
He has started every game since, albeit without having the devastating impact he would have been hoping for.
Spain have lacked the directness that made them so deadly at Euro 2024 as a result, but Yamal will be in the line-up against the holders.
At 19 years and six days old, he will be the third-youngest player to feature in the final of a World Cup. Teammate Pau Cubarsi, who is six months older, is not far behind.
Spain coach Luis de la Fuente described Yamal during this World Cup as a “genius” in the same bracket as Salvador Dali or Michelangelo.
“They’re different. What is exceptional to us, isn’t to them,” he said.
– Pele and Bergomi –
The only players to have featured in a World Cup final at a younger age are Pele, who was 17 years and 249 days old when he scored twice as Brazil beat Sweden in 1958, and Giuseppe Bergomi.
The latter was 18 when he played as Italy beat West Germany in 1982.
So far only eight players have won the World Cup as teenagers, while Pele and Kylian Mbappe are the only ones to have scored in the final before turning 20.
Mbappe was 19 when France triumphed in 2018, and his hopes of winning it again this year were extinguished by Yamal and Spain in the semi-finals.
Now Yamal hopes to dash Messi’s hopes of becoming a world champion for the second time, and in doing so firmly establish himself as the game’s next true global superstar.
It is remarkable that they are facing each other, almost two decades after a 20-year-old Messi was photographed giving a five-month-old Yamal a bath in a blue plastic tub as part of a shoot for a UNICEF calendar.
“That photo is incredible,” Messi said.
“Lamine Yamal versus Leo Messi: that’s the future, against the past, the present, the future and the forever,” France great Thierry Henry, a World Cup winner aged 20, said on Fox.
