By Shrey Banerjee
A morphed image of Argentine footballer Lionel Messi holding the Israeli national flag is circulating with false claims that the player has extended his support to the country amidst the ongoing conflict with militant group Hamas.
BOOM found the image has been digitally altered to include the Israeli flag. The original visual shows Messi holding a placard of a signed merchandise and goods platform icons.com
The morphed image, which appears to be a screenshot of an Instagram post of Messi, has been shared on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption, "Proving yet again that he is the GOAT".
The post can be viewed here. An archive of the post can be seen here.
This image has also been posted on Facebook. The link of which can be viewed here.
An archive of the post can be seen here.
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on the photograph and was directed to an Instagram post by Icons Memorabilia from October 31, 2023. In the original image, Messi can be seen carrying an 'icons.com' placard that reads: signed by the world's best.
Icons Memorabilia is a company that deals with signed football memorabilia from the top athletes of the world including Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr.
The post has been captioned as "Get 8% OFF all things Messi on Icons.com, the exclusive home of Official Messi Signed Merchandise. We figure now he's won you should win too! Simply use the discount code MESSI8 at the checkout when buying any Messi-related items. Congratulations, @leomessi! We looking forward to seeing you again very soon!"
The post can be viewed here.
We found another video on the Instagram handle showing Lionel Messi signing jerseys and sporting goods. The video was captioned as, "A new chapter begins...All the very best to our friend @leomessi who last night was unveiled by @intermiamicf as the latest superstar to grace MLS."
BOOM also found a video that contained an image of Lionel Messi holding the Icons.com placard, which featured on the Icons.com's verified Facebook handle.
You can view the video here.
You can view a comparison of the fake image against the original below:
Lionel Messi has visited Israel on multiple occasions. According to an AP report, Messi visited Tel Aviv with the Argentinian national team to play an international friendly against Uruguay despite 'rockets and boycott threats' in November 2019. In 2013, Messi arrived in Israel with his then Spanish league team, FC Barcelona, for a peace tour. During the visit, Messi, along with the team visited the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, paid homage and also met with Israeli leaders. Multiple images of Messi and his team during the peace tour can be found on Getty Images.
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