Messi’s Instagram post after winning the World Cup in Qatar, where he thanked his teammates, became the most liked post in Instagram history, beating the record for a photo of an egg posted in January 2019. But Sportbible has reported that Messi’s record-breaking Instagram post after Argentina won the World Cup contains a ‘fake’ trophy.
According to the report from Sportbible, it is now claimed that the trophy shown by Messi and his teammates was a copy. FIFA removed the original cup shortly after the trophy lift, which is standard protocol. The trophy with which the entire Argentina team posed under skipper Messi was actually made by an Argentine couple named Manuel and Paula.
The couple told El Pais: “The idea was that the players could sign it, but in the end the cup came on the playing field three times. The first one was made by a relative of (Leandro) Paredes, and he signed it.
“There I shouted to some players ‘if you see the cup that Paredes has, it’s ours’, and finally Lautaro Martínez brought it, who also signed it. FIFA staff came there and asked us to confirm that it was not the original.”
In the post, Messi had written in Spanish, which roughly translates as: “I’ve dreamed it so many times, I wanted it so bad I still haven’t fallen, I can’t believe it… Thank you so much to my family, to everyone who supports me and also to everyone who believed in us. We show once again that if we fight together and united, Argentines are able to achieve what we set out to do. The credit belongs to this group, which is above individualities, it is the strength of everyone who fights for the same dream that was also the dream of all Argentines… We did it!!!
The Instagram post had garnered more than 56.7 million likes and 1.6 million comments in just one day. Messi scored seven goals and provided three assists in the tournament to win the Ballon d’Or award, the only player to win it twice.