The most popular Instagram photo in world history is based on a misunderstanding.
At this point, Leo Messi has a fake made by the Argentines. PDO
About 74.4 million Instagram users have already liked this.
There Leo Messi celebrate, according to his own understanding, with the World Cup trophy he just won.
Messi was wrong.
At the moment when the picture was taken, the real World Cup trophy was still circulating Ángel Di María along on the other side of the Lusail Stadium. A teammate told Messi that he was holding a cheap replica of the trophy made by Argentine fans.
Messi was not sorry for the mistake. The couple from Buenos Aires had made a practically perfect copy of the World Cup trophy, and the captain himself did not notice any difference. Fifa president Gianni Infantino had given the real award to Messi just a few minutes before, but somewhere in the championship frenzy it changed to a copy.
Photographer for Argentinian magazine Clarin Fernando de la Orden added a moment on his own Instagram account where Di María tells Messi about his mistake.
– Di María told Leo that he had done the lap of honor with the wrong trophy, because he had the right one. Both laughed at the situation, de la Orden said El País for the magazine.
When the matter came to light, the makers of the “fake” trophy, Paula Zuzulich and Manuel Zarocontacted the photographer.
– It weighs exactly the same as the original. It is made of resin and quartz and is coated with gold paint. The difference to the original is really small, they assured.
The copy circulated for a long time at players’ parties, and for a while the couple feared that they had already lost their treasure. Eventually it returned to their hands by Leandro Paredes and Lautaro Martínez’s with autographs.
– Fifa officials wanted to make sure it wasn’t genuine.
Di María was always sure that he had the real trophy in his hands.
– The security guards swore that I was not allowed to give the trophy to anyone. I said there was another one over there, but they assured me I had the right one and that’s why they were following me. I then also told Messi, Di María recalled.