A morphed image showing Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo standing beside a television screen featuring a visual of Argentine footballer Lionel Messi is viral with claims that the former is supporting Argentina at the FIFA World Cup finale 2022 against France.
BOOM found that the original image shows Ronaldo expressing his support to the Portugal team during the UEFA Nations League tournament in 2020.
France and Argentina will play each other at the FIFA World Cup finals today after defeating Morocco and Croatia respectively at the semi-finals last week. Meanwhile, Portugal lost to Morocco in the FIFA World Cup 2022 quarter finals on December 10 leaving Ronaldo in tears.
The image has been captioned as, "Cristiano Ronaldo: "My son is a Messi fan. My wife is from Argentina. And I am a Messi fan too. So our whole Ronaldo family supports Argentina for the world cup 2022." (sic.)
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search and found the original image which was posted by Ronaldo on his Instagram account on October 15, 2020.
The original image on Ronaldo's account shows a stadium on TV screen instead of Messi's image as seen in the viral posts.
Translation of the Portuguese caption reads, "Verified It's like you're there! Let's go Malta! Portuguese Force"
According to a BBC report dated October 15, 2020, Ronaldo was in isolation after he tested COVID-19 positive during the UEFA Nations League .