On a night when the World Cup lifted its veil of surprise, Spain lifted the 2026 World Cup for the second time in its history, after settling the final against Argentina with a single goal, writing a new generation whose title is Lamine Yamal.

Just days ago, Lionel Messi was smilingly recalling that photo taken in 2007, where he is bathing an infant that no one could even imagine - not even in their wildest dreams - would one day face him in a World Cup final. Messi described it as 'amazing,' but fate saved its real ending for the final night.

So the photo that began with Messi's arms ended with a cup held by Yamal. And the child who once seemed gentle in the hands of the Argentine legend became the man who led Spain to global glory, in an image that seemed like a transfer of the baton from one generation to another by the command of history, which is sometimes merciless.

And if Messi had worn the 'bisht' after his historic coronation at the 2022 World Cup, then Yamal today has removed Messi's 'bisht', not as a diminishment of the legend's legacy, but as a declaration that the age of stories does not stop at a single hero. On the wall of football's memory, the image may remain eternal, but its heroes change, and glory belongs to those who succeed in writing the final chapter, and today its hero was Yamal and his companions, with all that the achievement entails.