A photo of renowned football player Lionel Messi holding the Israeli national flag is circulating widely on social media, with users suggesting that he has shown support for the country.
Claim: Lionel Messi is photographed holding the Israeli national flag as a gesture of his support for the country.
Fact: The image is morphed with an Israel flag in the place of a placard of “icons.com”, an online store specializing in autographed football memorabilia from renowned players around the world. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On conducting a reverse image search of the viral picture, we discovered a similar image featuring Messi holding a placard reading “icons.com.” posted on the Facebook page of icons.com on 3 October 2023, with a caption, ‘@leomessi with icons.com, the exclusive home of official Messi signed merchandise.’
We also located the photo of Messi with the “icons.com” placard and also a video of him signing sporting goods on the store’s Instagram page. Further investigation led us to the Icons Memorabilia website, which is an online store specializing in autographed football memorabilia from renowned players around the world. Similar images were found on the website as well. On the other hand, we did not come across the image of Messi holding the Israel flag on his social media profiles. You can find the comparison between the real and edited images below.
To sum up, this image of footballer Lionel Messi depicting him as holding the Israeli flag is edited.
