Post by Metin Tilki

#Gods #will? #Destiny? #Lionel #Messi, #Lamine #Yamal, #that #photo #and #the #World #Cup #Final. #Jesus #Knows #all #from #the #Beginning #to #the #End. #Amen The boy in the baby bath has unbelievably become the successor to Messi at Barcelona and now, maybe, on the world stage too. “Maybe Lionel Messi has picked up lots of babies, maybe it’s chance, but for those of us who have faith, who believe in something beyond, ‘chance’ is God’s pseudonym when he doesn’t want to sign his name,” Luis de la Fuente says. “In life, everything happens for a reason.” “Sometimes it’s true that the circle isn’t closed, but in my view there’s something else, something … I don’t know” Contemplate the scene, gaze upon the image of this World Cup, and you may be inclined to agree with Spain’s coach, to reach out and touch faith. How else to comprehend this? The man who took it, the photographer Joan Monfort, says he didn’t believe in destiny before but does now. In it, Messi, the greatest footballer of all time, bathes an unknown baby with a cherubic smile. #The #child, chosen at random and surrounded by bubbles, is Lamine Yamal. The footballer De la Fuente says was “touched by God’s wand” was baptised by him too. On Sunday they face each other in the World Cup final. The photograph was taken around Christmas 2007. Sport newspaper was putting together a charity calendar on behalf of Barcelona and Unicef, a studio set up in the away dressing room at the Camp Nou. Each player had a month and appeared with a child. Ronaldinho, the star, was July. #Messi #was #January. #Lamine #Yamal #was #four #months #old. His mum, Sheila, had put him into a draw to take part. Monfort got the idea the night before when bathing his daughter, taking a plastic tub and a rubber duck with him. Although the baby was tiny and Messi was timid, with Sheila’s help he got a shot he was happy with. And then, well, everyone forgot about it. Monfort left it in a drawer, another photo among thousands, no idea of a significance it didn’t yet have. The image was lost and then it was found. During Euro 2024 Lamine Yamal’s father, Mounir, posted it on social media, with the tag “the beginning of two legends”. Wait, what? How had this happened? How had that baby, chosen by chance, become Lamine Yamal? How, in fact, had Messi, a shy 19-year-old, become Messi? Of all the people in all the world how had they ended up together? How had no one seen this sooner? How on earth, why on earth, had Mounir not shared it before? Where did he suddenly find it? How had Lamine Yamal not known? When Monfort was introduced to him a while later, Lamine Yamal said he didn’t remember it. Stop for a moment and it messes with your mind. Mounir’s timing, it turned out, was perfect. Four days later Lamine Yamal scored that goal against France which took Spain to the Euro 2024 final and announced his arrival. Not long ago Lamine Yamal was shown the photo. “#God #willing, #I #can #face #him #in #the #final.”