An image is being shared on social media claiming it as the picture of Argentina’s star football player, Lionel Messi holding the Palestinian National flag. This post claims that Lionel Messi had taken a pro-Palestine stance amidst the recent conflict between Israel and Palestine. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of Argentina’s football player, Lionel Messi holding the Palestinian National Flag.
Fact: The photo shared in the post is an edited one. The original photo shows Lionel Messi holding the ‘Icons.com’ online shopping website placard. This photo was shot when Lionel Messi launched the official FC Barcelona memorabilia collection exclusively at his partner shopping website, Icons.com. Lionel Messi had not made any statement regarding the recent conflict between Israel and Palestine. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the photo using the appropriate keywords, a similar photo was found posted on the official Facebook handle of Lionel Messi. In the original image, Lionel Messi was holding the ‘Icons.com’ online shopping website placard, not the Palestinian National Flag. This photo was shot when Lionel Messi launched the official FC Barcelona memorabilia collection exclusively at his partner online shopping website, Icons.com. Lionel Messi had reportedly signed ten FC Barcelona framed t-shirts for online sale at the ‘Icons.com’ website.
‘Icons.com’ had shared the same image on their Instagram handle on 11 May 2021. ‘Icons.com’ is Lionel Messi’s official and exclusive world signing partner and licensee. Lionel Messi signed memorabilia collection on the ‘Icons.com’ website can be seen here.
Lionel Messi had not made any statement regarding the recent conflict between Israel and Palestine. From all these, it can be concluded that the photo shared in the post is an edited one.
To sum it up, this photo of Argentina football player Lionel Messi holding the Palestinian National Flag is an edited one.
