An image from the documentary film ‘Messi’ is shared as real childhood picture of Lionel Messi - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 3, 2022
A photo is being shared on social media claiming it to be a childhood picture of Argentinian football player Lionel Messi. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Argentinian professional footballer Lionel Messi’s childhood picture.
Fact: The photo shared in the post shows a still from the 2014 documentary film  ‘Messi’. The photo shows Juan Ignacio Martinez, a boy who played Messi’s childhood character in the Álex de la Iglesia-directed ‘Messi’ film. The photo does not show a real childhood picture of Lionel Messi. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found in an article published by the ‘Benditofutbal.com’ website. This article described it is working still from the Álex de la Iglesia-directed ‘Messi‘ documentary film. The description of the photo states, “Juan Ignacio Martínez in the role of Lionel Messi when he was a child“. The documentary film ‘Messi’ was released in 2014.
Several news websites published articles reporting about Juan Ignacio Martínez, the boy who played Messi’s childhood character in the documentary film Messi. They can be seen here, here and here. Juan Ignacio Martínez himself shared a few of his working stills from the film ‘Messi’ on his Instagram page. They can be seen here, here and here.
A few childhood pictures of Lionel Messi can be seen here, and here. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the photo shared in the post shows a working still from the 2014 ‘Messi’ movie, not a real childhood picture of Lionel Messi.
To sum it up, an image from the documentary film ‘Messi’ is shared as a real childhood picture of Argentinian professional footballer Lionel Messi.