An AI generated image showing Indian cricketers Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar with Argentine footballer Lionel Messi at the Marine Drive, Mumbai during his G.O.A.T India tour is viral as real.
BOOM tested the image using Google's AI detection tool which confirmed that it has been made using SynthID.
Lionel Messi, accompanied by Argentine footballer Rodrigo De Paul and Uruguay's Luis Suarez, visited India as a part of G.O.A.T India tour that started with Kolkata on December 13, 2025 and concluded on December 15 at Delhi. While fans in Kolkata were left heartbroken after they were unable to catch a proper glimpse of the football legend; the event was carried out smoothly in other cities. Messi was reportedly escorted out early from the Salt Lake stadium on December 13 as local VVIPs crowded the footballer to exchange pleasantries and click photographs. Messi's early exit triggered chaos among fans present at the venue who ended up vandalizing the stadium.
The Claim
A Facebook user posted the viral image with the caption, "Legends in one frem ." (sic)
Click here to see post and here for the archive.
BOOM also received the image for verification on their tipline (+917700906588) with the caption, "All the greats too couldn’t resist a visit to Marine Drive Mumbai."
What We Found
Viral Image Is AI Generated: BOOM ran related keyword searches but did not find any credible news article corroborating the viral claim. Among the cricketers present in the viral image, only Sachin Tendulkar met Lionel Messi at the Wankhede stadium during the Mumbai leg of G.O.A.T India tour.
Taking a cue, we tested the image on AI detection tools like Hive Moderation and Undetectable AI. Both the tools flagged the image as AI generated. The results can be seen below.
For further verification, we also ran the image on Google's AI detection tool. The tool detected with very high confidence that SynthID has been used in generating the viral image. See results below.