梅西和嬰兒亞馬爾的這張照片，到底是誰拍攝的？

一張拍攝于19年前的照片，近日再度在社交媒體上引發熱議。

畫面中，20歲的梅西正小心翼翼地為一個5個月大的嬰兒洗澡——那個嬰兒，正是如今的西班牙足球新星亞馬爾。彼時誰也不會想到，這兩位主角有朝一日會在世界杯決賽的賽場上相遇。

隨著阿根廷在世界杯半決賽中以2比1逆轉英格蘭、挺進決賽，39歲的梅西將率領球隊迎戰19歲的亞馬爾。這將是兩人職業生涯首次在正式比賽中交鋒，而他們的緣分，早在2007年便已埋下伏筆。

With Argentina's late 2-1 comeback win over England on Wednesday, Lionel Messi will now face Spain's Lamine Yamal, the 19-year-old phenom widely touted as his heir apparent — or the closest thing to it — in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final on Sunday, July 19.

But this weekend's title bout won't be the first meeting between Messi, 39, and Yamal. The two actually crossed paths nearly 19 years ago in Spain, when Messi, then 20 and playing for FC Barcelona, gave baby Yamal a bath — and was, unbelievably, photographed doing it.

梅西（左）亞馬爾（右）

彼時，效力于巴塞羅那的梅西受邀參加由西班牙《每日體育報》與聯合國兒童基金會（UNICEF）聯合舉辦的慈善日歷拍攝活動，與通過抽簽選中的嬰幼兒家庭合影，亞馬爾一家幸運中選。攝影師蒙特福特（Joan Monfort）記錄下了梅西懷抱嬰兒亞馬爾并為他洗澡的系列畫面。

So how did this even happen? The story goes that freelance photographer Joan Monfort was hired to snap a series of portraits of various Bar?a players posing with children and their families as part of a 2008 charity calendar organised by newspaper Diario Sport, in conjunction with UNICEF.

"UNICEF did a raffle in the neighborhood of Roca Fonda in Mataró, where Lamine's family lived," Monfort told the AP. "They signed up for the raffle to have their picture taken at the Camp Nou (Barcelona's stadium) with a Bar?a player. And they won the raffle."

這組照片直到2024年夏天才重新進入公眾視野。彼時，16歲的亞馬爾憑借在歐洲杯上的出色表現迅速走紅，其父親穆尼爾·納斯拉維（Mounir Nasraoui）在社交媒體上發布其中一張照片，并配文：“兩位傳奇的開始。”

照片曝光后，不少球迷一度懷疑其真實性，認為畫面過于巧合，甚至像是AI生成。隨后，美聯社對照片的真實性予以證實，并公布了更多當年拍攝的底片。

Yamal's father, Mounir Nasraoui, posted a crop of one of the photos from the shoot on Instagram. "The beginning of two legends," he wrote.

At first, soccer fans couldn't believe the image was real. The smooth studio glow. The surreal situation. (Why a bath?) Messi's goofy, beatific gaze. Not to mention the impossible odds. It had to be AI, right?

But the Associated Press quickly confirmed that Nasraoui's post was, in fact, authentic, and published several other images from the shoot as well.

蒙特福特回憶，當年的梅西性格靦腆，面對嬰兒顯得有些手足無措。“他走進更衣室時，看到一個裝滿水的塑料浴盆，里面躺著一個嬰兒。”他說，梅西起初甚至不知該如何抱起亞馬爾。

Messi joined 5-month-old Yamal and his mother Sheila Ebana — who also appears in some of the photos — in the away team locker room at Camp Nou in the fall of 2007. Monfort said Messi was "very introverted and shy", and initially "did not know how to hold (Yamal)".

"It was very difficult," Monfort explained. "He entered the changing room to find a plastic bathtub filled with water and a baby inside."

19年過去，當年的嬰兒已成足壇最炙手可熱的新星。亞馬爾15歲完成巴薩一線隊首秀，刷新隊史最年輕出場紀錄，此后隨隊奪得三座西甲冠軍和2024年歐洲杯，本屆世界杯又助西班牙闖入決賽。

梅西日前談及這位后輩時表示，新一代球員中有很多優秀球員，但如果讓他選擇一位，基于年齡、已經取得的成就和未來的發展潛力，他會選擇亞馬爾，“毫無疑問，在我看來，他就是最好的。”

"There's a new generation of footballers who are very good and have many years ahead of them, but if I have to choose one, because of his age, what he's done so far, and the future he can have, it's Lamine," Messi recently said about his younger counterpart. "There's no doubt, for me he's the best."

而梅西早已書寫屬于自己的傳奇。19年前的一次偶然同框，如今演變成世界杯決賽的首次交鋒，也讓這場巔峰對決多了一份跨越時代的意味。

來源：AOL

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