The general theme of the three big sporting showdowns on Sunday has an air of the current king either battling with the prince or against the future heir. In London, it will be Novak Djokovic, tennis's men's GOAT by Major titles, against Carlos Alcaraz, owner of three Slams at 21.
In Berlin, Spain, one of Europe's great aristocrats in football, seek a record fourth crown at the Euros. Their opponents, England, aim for a first crown. Across the Atlantic, Argentina, with a win in the Copa America final, will have a record 16th title. If Colombia win, it will only be their second ever continental win. For Colombia, Luiz Diaz, the country's future, will have the support of James Rodriguez, the sport's current emperor. You can get a similar parallel for Argentina — Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez.
Staying with Messi, the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner, there is potentially a bigger passing of the crown moment. Five hours before Messi leads the famous sky blue of Argentina out onto Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, Spain will walk out onto the Olympiastadion in Berlin. One of their 11 players will be Lamine Yamal, the 17-year-old who has, during the course of the event, become one of the most famous teenagers on the planet.
If Messi, at 37, is in the December third week of his career, Yamal, 20 years his junior, is in the January of his life. Even their noises during the tournament is a reminder of where they are in, currently. "These are the last battles," Messi had said before the semifinal against Canada. Sometime before Spain's last 16 clash against Georgia, Yamal, then 16, had found out he had passed his 4th year ESO school exams (their equivalent of 10th standard in India).
Even on the field, it's become apparent that a baton is being handed over, the passing of a family heirloom from the patriarch to the next in line. If you were to plot the relative outputs of both Messi and Yamal with respect to their effectiveness over the last month, Messi's would be a dot, clustered together with most of the other players. Not a hindrance but nothing too extraordinary.
On the other hand, Yamal would be a readily identifiable dot for he has been peerless. He has influenced multiple games, taken on his man and plays like a kid — to be fair, he is one — free of any baggage. There's a certain unexplainable joie de vivre even in the way he smiles. Call it the innocence of youth or the naivete of the young but it's hard to deny that whenever he's on the ball, the default setting is to move to the edge of your sofa and will him on.
Against France in the semifinal on Tuesday night, Yamal, who still cannot visit a nightclub legally in most countries, shape-shifted a high-stakes contest. After receiving the ball just inside the right half-space in their attacking third, he had the belief and gumption to marry idea and execution; using his left-foot as a magic wand, he unfurled a curling, dipping effort which left Mike Maignan clutching air. It's a goal Messi himself would have been proud to execute.
What makes Yamal so special is that he's already breathing the rarefied air reserved for the sport's greatest. He can cut inside on his left foot, he can beat his man on the outside, he can clip first-time crosses... the options he has at 17 is staggering. The trust the side has in him when they give him the ball is indicative of how the team sees him.
A few days before that piece of Museum-worthy artistry against France, a photo did the rounds. It contained a 20-year-old Messi bathing a six-month Yamal. Shot by Diario Sport, it was for a charity calendar in 2008. You can't help but philosophize the photo for it really belongs in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, like Iron Man blessing his kid or something. "It's one of life's coincidences," Mounir Nasraoui, Yamal's father, was quoted as saying by The Athletic. "Maybe Lamine was giving it to Leo," was how Nasraoui responded when it was suggested to him that Messi was blessing the baby with his powers.
But here's the thing. Yamal at 16 was how Messi was at 19-20. At 16, Messi was still polishing his skills apart from getting a few odd minutes here and there. He only started influencing games a few years later. For Argentina, the argument can be made that Messi has seldom had a standout moment in a high-stakes knockout clash like the one Yamal had.
At 17, Yamal is already a bonafide superstar. At 17, Messi's story had a prologue and a few pages.This is of course not to suggest Yamal will go on to emulate and eventually rewrite whatever Messi did at Barcelona. The same Athletic piece has a warning. Yamal overtook Johan Vonlanthen as the youngest goal-scorer in the history of the tournament. These days, Vonlanthen, 37 now, is in 'Colombia, the country where he was born.' He's now 'a Seventh-day Adventist'.
The stage, then, is set. In London, tennis' prince will face its current king. In Berlin and across the Atlantic in Miami, the Beautiful Game will look to see if the prince is ready to take over. Or can the emperor keep the challenger at bay to deny one of sport's biggest and most fundamental of things. TH
Anointing a possible successor and watching their coronation.