The woman hugging Messi was not his mother

20 December, 2022 11:21 am

Recently, a video titled “The scene of Messi hugging his own mother after winning the World Cup” has spread on the Internet.

See some of the posts that circulated on Facebook here, here and here. View archived versions of posts here, here and here.

See media reports with similar claims – BBC Sport (England), NDTv (India), Somoy Tv (Bangladesh).

Check out some of the videos circulating on YouTube with the same claim – here and here. Check out the archived versions of the videos – here and here.

Check out some of the videos circulating on Tiktok with the same claim – here and here. Check out the archived versions of the videos – here and here.

Fact Check

According to the rumor scanner’s investigation, The woman in the circulated video is not Messi’s mother, rather a cook for the Argentina national football team.

How was the investigation confirmed?

After the leaked video spread across the Internet, Rumor Scanner’s Facebook group and page received numerous fact-check requests to verify the matter. Following this, the Rumor Scanner team started an investigation.

In the first phase, the Rumor Scanner team tried to find a different image or video captured from a different angle of the video. But nothing was found.

Later, the Rumor Scanner team tried to find pictures of Messi’s mother Celia Maria Cuccittini taken on the day of the World Cup final.
Through investigation, a photo of Messi’s mother sitting in the gallery of the Lusail Stadium in Qatar on the day of the FIFA World Cup-2022 final (December 18) was found on the website of Getty Images, an international organization for image sharing and storage

A closer look at the picture reveals that he was wearing the purple away jersey of the Argentina National Football Team. But by observing the circulated video, it can be seen that the woman in the video was wearing Argentina’s sky blue-white home jersey.

Apart from the stadium gallery, Messi’s mother Celia Maria Cuccittini was seen wearing the purple jersey during the victory celebration with her family on the field.

In view of this, it can be confirmed that Messi’s mother did not change the jersey and wear the sky blue-white (Home) jersey before entering the field.

Also, the circulated video clearly shows that the woman in the video has a watch and a tattoo on her hand.

However, on the day of the World Cup final, neither the watch nor the tattoo was seen on Messi’s mother’s hand.

On the other hand, a photo taken during Argentina’s World Cup celebrations obtained from the Getty Images website shows the woman in the video being circulated.

A closer look at the picture reveals that the woman was wearing Argentina’s sky blue and white jersey while celebrating the World Cup victory.

Moreover, through the investigation, the original photos of Messi’s mother and Messi’s hug on the day of the World Cup final were found.

Based on the above evidence, it can be confirmed that this is not Messi’s mother, Celia Maria Cuccittini.

But who was the woman in the video?

After confirming that the woman in the circulated video is not Messi’s mother, The Rumor Scanner team tried to find out the identity of the woman. At the beginning of the investigation, a report by Indian media outlet Latestly (archive) was found. The report claims that the woman in the circulated video is the mother of former Argentine footballer Sergio Kun Aguero.
By investigating the source, the Rumor Scanner team found two pictures of Aguero’s mother on his Twitter and Instagram profiles. The right and left hands of Aguero’s mother were clearly visible in the two photos but the said tattoo on the hands of the claimed woman was not found on either hand. Also, there was no evidence of Aguero’s mother’s presence at the Lusail Stadium on the day of the World Cup final.

Images collected from Kun Agüero’s social media accounts.

After confirming that the woman in the video was not Aguero’s mother, the Rumor Scanner team investigated again in various ways.

At one point in the investigation, through a keyword search in Spanish, The Rumor Scanner team found a report published on the website of the Argentinian online media outlet ‘Infobae’. The report confirmed that Antonia Farias, the cook of the women’s Argentina national football team, was in the circulated video.
According to the report, she has been working with the Argentina National Team for almost a decade and is one of the most important members of the team. She was part of Argentina’s representative team at Copa America-2021, La Finalissima and World Cup in Qatar. She is one of the two women representatives of the team. The other is Veronica Mille, the Argentina team’s marketing manager.

Screenshot of an automatically translated article published by Infobae

Later reports were found in Argentina’s mainstream media, La Nacion, TN and Clarin, referring to the same issue.

Based on the source, through investigation, another article was found on Infobae’s website. According to reports, cook Antonia Farias was in the team photo taken with the trophy after Argentina won the Copa America 2021.

Upon further investigation, a post published on December 17 was found on the Instagram profile of Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.

The caption of the post mentions that this is a picture of the last training session in Qatar ahead of the World Cup final. A closer look at the picture reveals that Antonia Farias, the cook, is in the picture and a watch can be seen in her hand.

The watch bears a striking resemblance to the women’s watch in the video being circulated. Besides, the physical structure of the woman in that video is also found to be similar to the cook Antonia Farias.

That is, it can be confirmed based on the information obtained by several media outlets in Argentina and the Rumor Scanner team’s own investigation, that the woman in the circulated video is Antonia Farias, the cook of the Argentine national football team.

Bottom Line

Recently, a video has spread on the Internet, where it is claimed that Messi’s mother hugged Messi on the field after Argentina won the World Cup title. But actually the woman in the video is not Messi’s mother. Messi’s mother wore Argentina’s purple jersey the entire day of the World Cup final, but the woman in the video wore a sky blue jersey. Moreover, while the woman had a tattoo on her hand, Messi’s mother had no tattoo on her hand. In addition, several mainstream Argentine media have confirmed that the woman in the video is Antonia Farias, a cook for the Argentina national soccer team. Apart from this, the Rumor Scanner team’s own investigation also confirmed that the woman in the video is Antonia Farias.

Let it be known that Rumor Scanner has published multiple fact-check reports in the wake of multiple rumors surrounding the Qatar Football World Cup.

So, After Argentina’s World Cup win, the scene of Antonia Farias, the team’s cook, hugging Messi has sparked internet claims of Messi and Messi’s mother hugging; which is false.