The series of photos of Lionel Messi bathing Lamine Yamal as a child is the result of a campaign to produce a charity calendar with the participation of Barca and UNICEF.

In recent days, fans have enjoyed the photo of Messi bathing Yamal when he was just five months old. The photo is the result of a campaign to publish a charity calendar in 2007. The three participating organizations include Sport newspaper, the Barca Charity Foundation and the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF.

Sport illustrates each month in the calendar with pictures of players with children. When producing its first edition in 2006, the newspaper hastily selected children who were mostly children or relatives of employees. Most of them are white children, who have little to do with the work UNICEF does around the world.

Therefore, to prepare for the second edition, UNICEF spent several months choosing. One of the chosen babies comes from the neighborhood of Rocafonda, Catalonia. In a lottery among parents whose children here wanted to participate, the parents of a five-month-old baby named Lamine Yamal won.

The selection of participating players is the responsibility of the Barca media department. As a coincidence, on the day Yamal and his parents first arrived at Camp Nou, the player chosen by the club was Messi. At that time, Messi was just a promising young player, not quite a star like Ronaldinho, Deco or Samuel Eto’o.

Sport photographer Joan Monfort came up with the idea of ​​taking a photo of Yamal in the bathtub when he and his wife bathed their daughter Jana at home. When he arrived at the yard, he brought a basin, a towel and a yellow rubber duck that his daughter often plays with.

When it was time to take photos, Monfort filled the basin with water, while Messi, who had never held a baby in his arms before, timidly walked in and, along with Yamal’s mother, placed the boy in the water. Things weren’t going easy until Jana’s duck appeared. From then on, the situation calmed down and Monfort took the camera.

16 years after the event, Yamal became a star for Barca and the Spain team. The right wing striker set the record for the youngest player to play for the team at the age of 16 years and 57 days, and the youngest player to play at the Euro at the age of 16 years and 338 days.