Did Epstein files include Lionel Messi and Sergio Agüero shirtless photo?
Users shared the alleged photo of the Argentine soccer stars, claiming U.S. authorities released it among files related to the late sex offender.
Image courtesy of @PeluCavani/X
(@PeluCavani/X)
In short, the image did not originate from the new batch of the Epstein files, nor did it appear in searches of “Messi” or “Agüero” the files on the Justice Department’s website. No evidence suggested the image showed anything more than two teammates posing for a photo. We did not yet confirm the origins of the image, nor did we definitively confirm it was authentic. For these reasons, we’ve left this claim unrated. We will update this article if we learn more.
Snopes contacted Messi and Agüero via Messi’s production firm 525 Rosario and the pair’s co-owned company KRÜ Esports, seeking more information about the origins of the image. We also attempted to contact @PeluCavani to ask if the user created the X post as a joke and will update this story if we receive responses.
Digging into the rumor
Reverse image searches with Google Images and TinEye found websites hosting the image as far back as 2017, long before the public availability of near-realistic generative artificial-intelligence tools. For example, an archived page confirmed a user on the now-defunct Argentine social-networking website Taringa published the image as early as Feb. 8, 2017.
Searches for more information found websites including a FIFA.com article reporting, “Sergio Aguero and Lionel Messi have been besties for years.” The story documented that, in 2005, Agüero and Messi “bonded rapidly” and roomed together in the Netherlands during the FIFA U-20 World Cup, then known as the FIFA World Youth Championship. The Spain-based Diario AS publication reported (archived) Messi and Agüero continued to room together around matches for many years.
Users also shared a comparison of the alleged photo with an authentic selfie Messi posted (archived) to Instagram in July 2019, showing him holding a drink with Agüero sleeping in a bed in the background.
For further reading, we previously investigated whether a video showed a person drawing Messi and fellow soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo simultaneously using a special method.
Jeffrey Epstein allegedly ordered two “foreign girls” to be buried near his ranch after they died from “rough, fetish sex”, according to an email released in the latest tranche of the Epstein Files.
&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Two foreign girls strangulated during 'rough, fetish sex' were buried at Epstein's ranch, new documents reveal")
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell ordered two foreign girls to be buried at this ranch, email claims. Photograph: (Department of Justice)
New Epstein Files carry an email mentioning two foreign girls who allegedly died from rough sex and were buried at the paedophile’s Zorro Ranch. The man who sent the email has not been named, but claims he worked for Epstein and knows about the New Mexico incident.
