Fact-check: Was Messi locked up in Saudi Arabia?  No, an old picture first used in 2012

The photograph was taken in 2012, during Messi’s visit to Saudi Arabia, rather than during this year’s World Cup in Qatar.

Writer: Jibi Moses

A Facebook post published by a page named Football Xperts claiming that Lionel Messi was locked up in Saudi Arabia recently is false.

The post, published on the 23rd of November, 2022 was captioned, “Not the first time Saudi Arabia locked up Lionel Messi..#FIFAWorldCup #Messi #Qatar2022.” According to this description, Saudi Arabia had, at some time, locked up the footballer. However, there was no reason or other details about his arrest. 

The post was accompanied by a picture of Messi being surrounded by soldiers, presumably escorting him, with one of the soldier’s gun pointing at his chin. His reaction shows he’s scared. 

The post attracted over 66,000 reactions,  over 4,000 shares and over 900 comments, with people mainly commenting already being concerned over the life of Messi and his safety. 

The image that was attached to the post. 

211 Check conducted an image reverse search using InVID; the search yielded a large number of images from various sources, some in similar situations but not the exact image; however, we discovered that the image was used on Reddit, posted by u/gaping your mother. It was nine years ago. 

“Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi arrives in Saudi Arabia for a promotional event. His face is priceless as security escorts him through a crowd of fans,” the photo caption reads.

A screenshot of the picture used by the Reddit user 

There is one which was first tweeted on the Twitter handle Barça Worldwide.@Barcaworldwide. It was tweeted on May 22, 2022, before the World Cup. In the thread, there are words said by Messi,..” it was very scary but utterly unintentional. That guy didn’t even realize he was pointing the rifle at me.“

A post with the same picture was published by a Saudi Paper, AFP/Al- Watan Newspaper via Getty Images. The photo was captioned, ‘A picture taken on November 12 2012 shows Argentina’s forward Lionel Messi being escorted by Saudi security personnel upon his arrival with the team in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Conclusion:

According to the results from the searches, the picture was first taken in 2012, in  Saudi Arabia, when Lionel Messi was in Saudi for official duties. The soldiers were escorting him, trying to protect him from the fans. Lionel Messi is in Qatar with the Argentina team.

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