Is it true that the Central Bank of Argentina proposed placing a portrait of Messi on one of the banknotes?

The media spread the news that the Central Bank of Argentina proposed issuing a banknote with the image of the captain of the national football team, Lionel Messi, after his team’s victory at the 2022 World Cup. We checked whether such an initiative actually exists.

Information about the proposal of the Argentine Central Bank, unusual for a living and still quite young person, appeared in many sports and news publications (Sportbox.ru, "Championship.ru", "RBC Sport", "Komsomolskaya Pravda", Lenta.ru, "Vedomosti"). The news spread across social networks: VKontakte (Champions Cup — 96,000 views, Official 433 - 34,000), Telegram (“ABC of money | Finance» — 23,000, MUR - 29 000), Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

On December 18, 2022, the Argentina national team won the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. In the final match against the previous champions, the French, Messi scored two goals and was also recognized as the best player of the tournament. To immortalize the team's achievement at the 2022 World Cup, the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (CBAR) allegedly proposed placing an image of Messi on the 1,000 Argentine pesos (approximately 400 rubles) banknote. At the same time, some social network users discussing CBAR's proposal, called this initiative overkill and were indignant at why the choice fell on Messi (and not, for example, on one of the heroes of the 2022 World Cup, Argentine midfielder Angel Di Maria).

It is worth noting that the Central Bank has already released collectible coins in 1977-1978, when Argentina hosted the 1978 World Cup, which they also won. Since 2006, the Central Bank has been stable released silver coins in honor of each FIFA World Cup: in 2006 year in Germany, in 2010 in South Africa, in 2014 in Brazil, in 2018 in Russia and in 2022 in Qatar.

Unlike collectible coins, a banknote with a portrait of Messi supposedly should have been included not only in the collections of numismatists, but also in regular monetary circulation. Publications about the new banknote also included its design: a blue and yellow 1,000-peso bill with a close-up of Lionel Messi's face and the sun symbol from the Argentine flag. On the back of the bill there should supposedly have been a photo of the team on a pedestal and the name of coach Lionel Scaloni, who led the team to victories at the 2021 Copa America, in the match FinalissAndma-2022 and at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Nevertheless, it turned out that the Central Bank did not plan to issue banknotes with a portrait of the captain of the football team at all. In a comment to the publication Bloomberg Linea The Central Bank of Argentina said that such an idea was not even considered there. The Argentine Mint took the journalists' call with humor, also confirming that they had not heard anything about such an initiative.

For the first time, information about a banknote with a portrait of Messi appeared on December 19 in a Mexican business newspaper El Financiero. The publication stated that even before the start of the final match, the leadership of the Argentine Central Bank discussed options for celebrating a possible victory and a new world title. However, El Financiero based its publication on an inaccurate statement by Bloomberg journalist Ignacio Olivera Dole. On December 15, Dole attended a meeting of the management of the Central Bank of Argentina, where, according to him words, a banknote with Messi's face was discussed. Only later Dole clarifiedthat the idea was put forward as a joke and no one discussed it seriously. By the way, El Financiero also reported at the end of the article that the information about the Messi banknote was a joke by one of the Central Bank employees. But, apparently, this detail was missed by the rest of the media and social network users who took the news seriously. Perhaps they were also misled illustration to El Financiero article: 1000 pesos banknote, where instead of red ovenbird - the national bird of Argentina - a portrait of Messi was inserted using a graphic editor, but nowhere was it directly stated that the image was not real.

Three days later, December 21, on Twitter Sportbible there is another option design banknotes (also without specifying the use of a graphic editor), which spread even more widely on the Internet along with false news.

Thus, incorrect information about the banknote with a portrait of Messi was the result of inaccuracies in the statements of journalists and at the same time the inattention of readers. As a result, the news spread across the media and social networks without the reservation that initially the proposal was a joke and no one was seriously planning to put Messi’s portrait on the banknote.

Cover image: Twitter

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

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