India, July 19 -- Almost two decades ago, photographer Joan Monfort didn't think much of his photo shoot of a teenage Lionel Messi bathing a cute baby boy in a plastic bathtub. Not until the remarkable twist of fate became clear years later, when that infant blossomed into Lamine Yamal.

Now those images of the long-haired Messi, his hands covered in soap suds as if anointing Yamal as soccer's Next Big Thing, have become the most talked-about - and gawked about - in the run-up to Sunday's World Cup final, when Messi's Argentina will play Yamal's Spain for the biggest trophy in the sport. "I have never been a believer or thought that anything was destined to occur, but I am beginning to have my doubts. This is beyond all reasonable explana...