Finalissima 2025: Lionel Messi's Argentina and Lamine Yamal's Spain to compete for trophy
The 2025 Finalissima is set. Copa América 2024 winners Argentina and Euro 2024 winners Spain will go head-to-head for the trophy next year.
The first-ever Finalissima — or "grand final" — was played in 2022, but the tradition of the best teams in UEFA and CONMEBOL going head-to-head dates back to 1985. Italy and Argentina played in the inaugural Finalissima at Wembley Stadium, with Lionel Messi's Argentina coming out on top, 3-0.
Next year, Messi is expected to lead Argentina again, this time against a rising Spain team led by 17-year-old sensation Lamine Yamal, whose only other meeting with Yamal came in a now-viral photoshoot in 2007. Ahead of the this weekend's finals, Yamal told RAC1 that he was hoping Spain and Argentina would win their respective finals so that he could meet — and compete against — his childhood idol, Messi.
"I hope Messi wins the Copa América and I win the Euros, so I can play against him in the Finalissima," Yamal said.
The 2022 Finalissima was played on June 1, so the next edition will likely take place in the summer of 2025. There are no major European or South American competitions outside of FIFA World Cup qualifying until the actual World Cup in 2026, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The Finalissima will mark Argentina's first final since Ángel Di María's retirement from international soccer. Before the start of Copa América 2024, the 36-year-old forward announced that the tournament would be his last time representing his country.
