10 things you didn't know about the Spain vs Argentina final

The final nobody dared predict is here. Before kickoff on Sunday, here are the stories behind the story: a 19-year-old photo, a 60-year wait, a referee with history, and a FIFA investigation nobody saw coming.

On Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, Spain and Argentina walk out at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to decide the 2026 World Cup. On paper, it is the world's No. 1 team against the world's No. 2, the reigning South American champion against the reigning European champion. That alone has never happened in a final before.

But the best stories in this match are the ones you will not see on the team sheet. Here are ten of them, all verified, most of them barely told.

1. Messi bathed Yamal as a baby. Really.

In the autumn of 2007, a shy 20-year-old named Lionel Messi took part in a charity photo shoot for an FC Barcelona calendar benefiting UNICEF. His task: help bathe a six-month-old baby from the Rocafonda neighborhood of Mataró, whose family had won a raffle spot in the shoot. The photographer later recalled that Messi did not quite know how to hold the child.

That baby was Lamine Yamal.

Nineteen years later, the two will share a pitch for the first time in their lives, in a World Cup final. Yamal once said he hoped to face Messi in a final one day. Careful what you wish for.

2. These two giants have met exactly once at a World Cup. In 1966.

It feels impossible, but it is true. Spain and Argentina, two of the sport's superpowers, have faced each other at a World Cup only one time: a group-stage match at Villa Park in Birmingham on July 13, 1966. Argentina won 2-1 behind two goals from Luis Artime.

Sixty years later, they meet again, this time with everything on the line. Their all-time record across all matches is deadlocked at six wins apiece, so Sunday literally breaks the tie. And Spain fans still remember the last meeting fondly: a 6-1 friendly demolition in Madrid in 2018, with a hat-trick from Isco. Messi, notably, did not play that night.

3. Messi is about to become the oldest outfield player ever in a World Cup final

At 39 years and 25 days, Messi will be the oldest outfield player to appear in a World Cup final in the tournament's 96-year history. Only one player of any kind was older: Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff, who lifted the trophy at 40 in 1982.

And if Messi scores? He would become the oldest goalscorer in a final, a record held since 1958 by Sweden's Nils Liedholm. Messi already owns the all-time World Cup records for goals and assists, and this is his record sixth World Cup. He keeps running out of records to break, then finding new ones.

4. Yamal is younger than Mbappé was in 2018, and he is chasing Pelé

At 19 years and 6 days, Yamal will be one of the youngest players ever to appear in a World Cup final, younger than Kylian Mbappé was when he lit up the 2018 final for France. Only two players in history got there younger: Italy's Giuseppe Bergomi in 1982, and Pelé in 1958. Yamal knows something about taking records from Pelé. He played the Euro 2024 final on his 17th birthday, becoming the youngest player ever to appear in a major international final. Sunday is just the next chapter.

5. The referee was there for Argentina's worst day of the decade

Slovenia's Slavko Vinčić will take the whistle on Sunday, and he has history with both teams. He was the referee the day Argentina suffered their most shocking defeat in years: the 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia that opened the 2022 World Cup. Argentina, of course, went on to win that tournament anyway. He also officiated Spain's win over Italy at Euro 2024.

When refereeing chief Pierluigi Collina told Vinčić he had the final, the Slovenian admitted he was trembling: shock first, he said, then joy.

6. Argentina's coach lives in Spain. Spain's coach was 5 the last time these teams met.

Lionel Scaloni, the man who ended Argentina's 36-year title drought, has spent most of his adult life in Spain. He won a league title with Deportivo La Coruña, met his wife in Mallorca, and still lives on the island, where he is a passionate amateur cyclist.

Across the touchline, Luis de la Fuente is Spanish football royalty of a quieter kind: a La Rioja native who won two league titles as an Athletic Bilbao defender in the 1980s. When Spain and Argentina last met at a World Cup in 1966, de la Fuente was five years old. Scaloni had not been born.

7. Nine players in this final are club teammates. At the same club.

Atlético Madrid might be the most conflicted fan base on the planet this weekend. Nine Atlético players are in the final: five with Argentina (Julián Álvarez, Nahuel Molina, Thiago Almada, Giuliano Simeone and Juan Musso) and four with Spain (Marcos Llorente, Álex Baena, Marc Pubill and Alejandro Grimaldo).

One more twist: Giuliano Simeone is the son of Atlético manager Diego Simeone, himself a former Argentina international. Somewhere in Madrid, Sunday dinner is going to be complicated.

8. One of Argentina's stars was born in Spain. And Messi holds a Spanish passport.

Nico Paz, Argentina's gifted young playmaker, was born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, and holds dual citizenship. Spain never called, his father once said, so he chose the country of his blood, and he assisted Messi's goal on his very first senior appearance.

The heritage runs both ways. Roughly 20 million Argentines have Spanish ancestry, and Messi himself has held Spanish citizenship since 2005, obtained so Barcelona could register him within La Liga's foreign-player limits. On Sunday, a Spanish citizen will captain Argentina against Spain.

9. The biggest match on Earth is in the tournament's riskiest stadium

MetLife Stadium has no roof and no air conditioning, and players' union FIFPRO ranked it among the highest heat-risk venues of the entire tournament. The warning signs were real: at this same stadium, in this same 3 p.m. July slot last year, Argentina's Enzo Fernández got dizzy and dropped to the ground with heat exhaustion during a Club World Cup match. He called playing in those temperatures very dangerous.

FIFA has mandated hydration breaks in each half. The forecast offers some mercy, with highs in the mid-80s Fahrenheit expected, but 82,500 fans and 22 players will be watching the sky as closely as the ball.

10. Argentina arrives at the final under a FIFA investigation

After beating England in the semifinal, several Argentina players unfurled a banner reading "Las Malvinas son Argentinas," asserting Argentina's claim to the Falkland Islands. FIFA opened a disciplinary investigation into political messaging, and the British government demanded action.

There is precedent: Argentina's federation was fined about $37,000 for a nearly identical banner in 2014. A ruling could land before kickoff. It is a jolt of geopolitics in a match already heavy with history.

Beyond the trophy, the records waiting to fall are absurd. Messi could become the first captain ever to lift two World Cups. Argentina could become the first back-to-back champion since Brazil in 1962. Messi and Mbappé enter the final tied at eight goals apiece in the Golden Boot race, with Messi ahead on the assists tiebreaker; he has never won the award.

And hanging over all of it, that photograph from 2007: a shy kid from Rosario cradling a baby from Mataró, neither of them knowing they would one day meet again with the whole world watching.