Spain and Barcelona superstar Lamine Yamal said his embrace with Argentina icon Lionel Messi after the 2026 World Cup final was about gratitude and admiration.
The 19-year-old forward sought out Messi, who was making his final World Cup appearance, after Spain defeated Argentina in the showpiece match.
"I said, 'Thank you for everything you gave football,'" Yamal told The Guardian's Sid Lowe. "I don't do things to look nice for the photo; that came from inside."
Yamal also talked about appearing in a now-infamous photo with Messi when he was a baby, for a 2008 UNICEF calendar.
The Barcelona winger said he once asked his father not to publish the image because he didn't want to encourage early comparisons with Messi.
"(My dad) put it on Facebook once, and I told him to take it down," Yamal said. "I wanted to be Lamine; I didn't want to be Messi. I just wanted to get where I could get."
The exchange after the World Cup final carried extra weight as Yamal had just helped Spain win the title, while Messi, 39, was nearing the end of his illustrious international career.
