A post containing a collection of celebratory World Cup-winning photos from Argentina star Lionel Messi has become the most-liked post in Instagram history.
The 35-year-old has arguably cemented his status as the greatest player of all time after leading his nation to their first World Cup triumph since 1986 after beating France on penalties in the final on Sunday.
Messi was a standout performer at the 2022 tournament in Qatar and came away with the Golden Ball award as the best player after scoring seven goals and providing three assists in seven matches.
Argentina’s No.10 scored twice in the final and also converted from the penalty spot in the 4-2 shootout victory, and he has etched his name into World Cup folklore after breaking a plethora of records during his time in the Middle East.
In the aftermath of Argentina’s celebrations on Sunday night, Messi took to Instagram to share a gallery of 10 photos including himself and his teammates celebrating during the final and with the trophy after their success was sealed.
Within less than 48 hours, Messi’s post has since received a whopping 60.6 million likes and counting, which is the most for any individual Instagram post in the social media platform’s history.
The attacker’s post has received over a million more likes than the previous record holder – a simple image of an egg posted by @world_record_egg in January 2019.
The egg image received just over 56.5 million likes and smashed the previous record of 18 million likes for a post by Kylie Jenner in 2018.
Messi’s record-breaking post has also surpassed the most-liked post by Cristiano Ronaldo – an advertisement image for Louis Vuitton of the Portugal star and Messi playing chess posted on November 19, which has received just over 42 million likes.
While Ronaldo remains the most-followed person on Instagram with a staggering 519 million followers, Messi has seen his tally surpass 403 million since Argentina were crowned World Cup champions.
Messi accompanied his collection of photos with a message, which read: “WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!!!! I dreamed it so many times, I wanted it so much that I still haven’t fallen, I can’t believe it…
“Thank you very much to my family, to all who support me and also to all who believed in us. We demonstrate once again that Argentines when we fight together and united we are capable of achieving 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.”
Messi is currently in his homeland with the rest of his Argentina teammates celebrating their success, and the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner is expected to take a short break before returning to duty at club level with Paris Saint-Germain, who resume their 2022-23 Ligue 1 campaign against Strasbourg on December 28.
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