Dhaka, Sept. 29 -- Lamine Yamal has revealed what he told Lionel Messi when the pair embraced after Spain beat Argentina in the 2026 World Cup final.

The 19-year-old approached Messi after Spain's 1-0 extra-time victory in New Jersey, a moment that quickly became one of the defining images of the final given the pair's shared Barcelona connection.

"I said thank you for everything you gave football. I don't do things to look nice for the photo; that came from inside," Yamal said in an interview with The Guardian.

The gesture carried added symbolism because Yamal has spent much of his young career being compared with Messi.

He also explained why the famous childhood photograph of Messi bathing him as a baby had remained largely out of p...