Is it true that at the World Cup, Messi swore at Zelensky and called on Ukrainian refugees to leave Europe?

Such reports about the statement of the Argentine football player appeared on the Internet a few days ago. Along with them, a photo is being circulated in which the athlete holds a piece of paper with an inscription that sends three letters to the Ukrainian president. We have verified the accuracy of these publications.

The earliest posts about Lionel Messi's words appeared on Telegram on November 20, 2022. According to publications, the footballer expressed his thoughts about Ukrainian refugees and the actions of Vladimir Zelensky “yesterday at the opening of the World Cup in Qatar.” The following quote is given: “I’m tired of looking at this senseless war! Zelensky, take your people and get out of Europe, we know the truth!” It is implied that this phrase can be heard on some video from the locker room. Also attached to the publications is a photograph in which Messi holds a white piece of paper with the words “Zelenski idi nahyi” written on it.

According to the service data TGStat, On November 20, posts with Messi's photo and statement received more than 480,000 views. Among others, such publications appeared in the following channels: “Breaking news!"(59,000 views), "Harder"(73,000), "Breaking news"(115,000), "I'm aware"(86,000), "Cartridge" (94,000) and "Conflict"(56,000). From the messenger, the news migrated to other platforms, for example, to public pages on VKontakte (examples here, here, here And here) and on users’ personal pages (here, here, here, here And here), as well as on Twitter (here And here) And Facebook.

Let's start with the fact that the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar started November 20, same time passed and the opening ceremony of this sporting event. Moreover, viral publications imply that the opening took place the day before this date, that is, on the 19th. Let's assume it's a simple typo. What about the photo of Messi?

The image we are interested in was modified in a graphics editor. Using the reverse search From the picture we learned that the original photo was published back in 2014. Messi on his Instagram posted it was dated May 22, 2014, and in the original the phrase “Fuerza Luca!” was written on the paper. (“Be strong, Luke!”). Just that month dialed popularity of the same name flash mob, in which tens of thousands of people took part, including famous personalities. They took pictures with the words "Fuerza Luca" so that support a nine-year-old boy named Luca Senatore, who was to come cancer treatment.

Note that photographs of celebrities holding pieces of paper or posters with inscriptions often turn into memes. For example, this happened with a photo of another football player, Cristiano Ronaldo, and with Arnold Schwarzenegger. This fate did not escape Messi, whose photo in 2015 used in the #SaveRotor campaign. Let’s say that the altered photo simply served as clickbait and was only needed to increase the virality of the posts. Perhaps some users were even able to remember the old meme. What about the football player's quote?

In open sources, we were unable to find any appeals from Messi to Zelensky, especially with a demand to take away Ukrainian refugees from European countries. As for the above-mentioned video from the locker room, it’s like approved in many viral publications, supposedly should be posted in the Telegram channel "World Cup 2022 news | Qatar 2022“However, we could not find such a video there. This channel was created November 19, 2022, and in the description it says, that this is the official channel of the World Cup 2022, while it does not have a verification check mark, and on the website FIFA Telegram is not listed in the contact list at all. Judging by the fact that in all the Telegram channels mentioned above, entries with Messi’s statement have already been deleted (and almost everywhere after a day), these were just clickbait posts in which the newly created channel was advertised using a fake.

Cover photo: social networks

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

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