Beating France not enough, Messi must beat an egg to prove he’s GOAT
Lionel Messi may have just led his country to its first World Cup victory in 36 years, but he is now facing a super tough contest that may even put Kylian Mbappé’s hattrick to shame. Even worse, that contest is coming from, er, an egg. Yes, you read that right. And no, Messi is not playing football with an egg, just in case you were wondering (don’t be ridiculous).
It’s the battle of the most liked post ever on Instagram. An image of the 35-year-old Argentinian football star holding aloft the World Cup trophy on Sunday beat the previous most-liked post on Instagram — the egg, of course. Once Instagrammers realised that the egg had been beaten, many of them (suspected to be jealous fans of Cristiano Ronaldo or France) swung into action to help the egg regain its prestigious position.
The giant-killer egg
On Tuesday evening, Messi was clearly leading with 61.1 million likes, while the superstar egg had only 56.6 million. But the egg cannot be taken lightly. The photo of the single egg was uploaded almost four years ago, with the singular purpose of beating the then-world record of 18 million likes set by American celebrity Kylie Jenner announcing her baby Stormi. The egg won.
Also read: Lionel Messi’s World Cup dream fulfilled; what next for Argentina?
The picture of the egg is the only post ever made by the account of Egg Gang (world_record_egg). Initially, the internet was abuzz with speculations about who was behind the Egg Gang account and how it garnered so many likes so quickly. Later, British advertising executive Chris Godfrey claimed he and two others created it with the peculiar purpose of getting as many likes as possible.
For a while on Tuesday morning, the egg hit back, pushing Messi down from the top spot and regaining its status. However, as word spread, the Paris Saint-Germain star raced back into the lead with his post captioned “CAMPEONES DEL MUNDO!!!!!!!” (World Champions).
Game of the Gram
After the 2022 World Cup final, Messi now holds several Guinness World Records, including the most World Cup matches played (26), most World Cup Man of the Match awards (11), most World Cup appearances as captain (19), most appearances in World Cup tournaments by a male player (5), and the first person to assist (a goal) at five different World Cups.
Also read: Messi ‘suffered’ for many years, says wife Antonela after World Cup win
Can he win the game of the Gram as well by beating the egg? We’ll have to wait and watch.
Just a final word of solace for Ronaldo fans — the Portuguese football star has the most-followed account on entire Instagram. With 519 million followers, he is far ahead of Messi’s 402 million.
(With agency inputs)
