It’s in elevated moments like this, when all the usual talk in football takes a more metaphysical hue, that even the most single-minded players can’t help looking for signs and omens.
In Spanish training, where Lamine Yamal is “wrapped in cotton” due to recent injuries, they have still been noting every turn and finish in training. “That’s how you’re going to win the World Cup final.”
It’s quite a prospect to consider.
With Argentina, there has meanwhile been more wistful commentary about how this is Lionel Messi’s first appearance at the Metlife Stadium since the 2016 Copa America final. At that point, his entire international legacy was completely different. Argentina had lost a third tournament final in three years and it looked like it was never going to happen. Messi himself seemed to confirm that as he announced his retirement. “I’ve done all I can, I’ve been in four finals and it hurts not to be a champion.”
Everyone could see exactly how much it hurt, from a widely-published photo of Messi in pained tears.
Now, with the World Cup having since become the great affirmation of the Argentine’s talent rather than his great bane, there’s another photo being reproduced everywhere. It is of course that of a 20-year-old Messi bathing a six-month-old Yamal back in 2007.
The image, the product of a Unicef promotional campaign that Yamal’s family won a raffle for, is such an astonishing coincidence that you would have trouble believing it’s real, were it not now so ubiquitous.
It may even be perfect given what this World Cup final offers, beyond the uplifting opportunity to lift the trophy: this is not just the first time these Barcelona prodigies have met, but the first time the World Cup has potentially had such a clear passing-of-the-torch moment.