Lionel Messi’s World Cup winning photo becomes the most popular social media post ever with more than 64 million likes, beating a TikTok video by Bella Poarch.
By Kieran Lynch for Mailonline
Published: 19:05, 20 December 2022 | Updated: 19:12, 20 December 2022
Lionel Messi’s Instagram post celebrating Argentina’s World Cup triumph is now officially my favorite social media post of all time.
The Argentine superstar has surpassed the record set by a TikTok video set by Filipino American singer and social media personality Bella Poarch in 2020.
Following Argentina’s thrilling penalty shoot-out victory over France, Paris Saint-Germain star Messi posted 10 photos of the celebrations in Qatar on Instagram.
Lionel Messi’s Instagram post celebrating Argentina’s World Cup triumph has become my most liked social media post ever, beating a TikTok video by Bella Poarch (right )
Messi has long been regarded as one of the best soccer players in history, and after his Instagram post, many people were happy to see the Argentine superstar finally add the World Cup to his il· lustrous list of achievements.
In the time since he uploaded it, Messi’s post has amassed 64.5 million likes, and the striker’s follower count has also grown rapidly on the social media platform, now standing at 404 million.
Messi accompanied the post with a caption that read: ‘WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!!! I’ve dreamed of it so many times, I wanted it so much that I haven’t fallen yet, I can’t believe it……
Messi finally added the World Cup to his illustrious list of achievements in Sunday’s final
“Many thanks to my family, to all those who support me and also to all those who have believed in us. We prove once again that Argentines when we fight together and united we are able to achieve what we set out to do.
‘The merit belongs to this group, which is above individualities, it is the strength of all fighting for the same dream’.
Poarch no longer has the most liked post on any social media platform with her August 2020 TikTok video.
The video featured her lip-syncing “M to the B” by British rapper Millie B.
Sportsmail reported today that Messi’s photo had become the most popular Instagram photo of all time, surpassing “the egg”, which garnered 56.1 million likes.
As of the time of this story on Tuesday morning, Messi’s photo has gained eight million more likes with an additional two million followers.
With the ever-increasing numbers, it may be difficult for any social media post to match what Messi is now scoring.
His post also beat Cristiano Ronaldo’s last month, a pre-World Cup Louis Vuitton ad featuring the Portuguese star and Messi playing chess that had amassed 41.9 million likes.
Ronaldo remains the most followed person on Instagram, with an impressive 519 million.
Last month, he became the first person to reach 500 million followers on social media.
The Portuguese star leads the way in terms of followers with Messi a clear second: the two are the only athletes in the top 10.
Kylie Jenner, Selena Gomez, Dwayne Johnson, Ariana Grande, Kim Kardashian, Beyonce, Khloe Kardashian and Justin Bieber round out the top 10.
Messi made a huge impact in the final in Qatar as he scored twice, while also converting his penalty in the shootout.
The PSG forward and his teammates flew from Qatar to Argentina on Monday, where they celebrated their World Cup win with thousands of jubilant fans in Buenos Aires.