Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal’s up rise at the start of the 2023/24 season has gotten some fans hailing him as the second coming of Lionel Messi from the La Masia academy, and some have even unearthed his history with the icon himself.

Yamal has slotted in as the replacement for Ousmane Dembele, who was roped in by PSG before the start of the campaign. With the Blaugrana struggling to sign a major name to succeed him, Xavi Hernandez has given the 16-year-old winger a prominent role in his squad and trusting him to provide the goods.

The teenager has repaid his manager’s faith so far, producing some brilliant performances in the start of the campaign. That includes an inspired showing in Barca’s thrilling 4-3 win over Villarreal on Sunday (August 27), in which he linked-up with his teammates and played as if he was a part of the squad for many years.

The truth behind the Baby Yamal and Leo Messi picture

Yamal got his first goal contribution of the campaign for Barca, assisting Gavi’s strike in the game. He has already broken a number of records for the club, becoming the youngest player to play in a La Liga game for the Blaugrana last season at the age of 15. He became the youngster player to provide an assist in a La Liga game against Villarreal by setting up Pedri’s goal.

Amid all the craze upon his breakthrough into the first-team squad, some Lionel Messi fans believe that the Argentine might’ve played a major role in making him the exciting, highly-talented football he is today. A few fans started to spear a picture of a very young Messi greeting a dark-colored baby and his mother – claiming that it was him with a Baby Yamal.

In fact, this picture of a young Leo with the baby started to go viral among his fans – with his fanatics hinting that Messi ‘blessed’ Yamal when he was just a toddler and spread his footballing ability to him too.

However, there is no real concrete evidence that this meeting between a young Leo and a Baby Yamal ever happened. The Spaniard was born in Mataro, a province of Barcelona, but he did not join the club before he was a seven-year-old – so there is little chance that Messi would randomly greet him when he was a baby.

Did Yamal ever get to meet Messi?

This is just part of a running gag from Leo Messi fans that tries to indicate that the Argentine has been the inspiration behind many prominent young names in football. While there is little doubt about Messi’s influence in football and youngsters, there is little evidence of him ‘blessing’ a baby Yamal.

With that being said, the Spanish winger has been grateful enough to grow up watching Messi in his absolute peak years and also gotten to interact with him when the Argentine was still at Barcelona. Leo was more than happy to give the La Masia players some tips and interact with them whenever he could, being a graduate of the iconic youth academy himself.

There might not be evidence of Leo ever meeting a toddler Yamal, but the two did interact after the Spaniard joined the Barcelona academy at the age of 7. There are plenty of verifiable pictures of Messi posing with Yamal from a few years ago before he left Camp Nou.

Not just that, but the 16-year-old even managed to snap a picture with former Barcelona forward Luis Suarez during his time at the club as Messi’s partner in the attack. It looks like the youngster was adamant at learning from the best and trying to pick the brains of the admirable attacking players in how to improve his game and ascend to the professional football scene at a young age.

It is quite clear from his early performances that Yamal has the potential of becoming the ‘next big thing’ at Barcelona. He has the entire package, be it creating chances, scoring goals or dribbling past players like Messi did.  While he still has a LONG road ahead to come anywhere close to matching Leo’s heroics, Yamal appears to be determined to succeed under Xavi Hernandez and continue setting records at the club.