There is no evidence that Alfie Haaland attacked the Argentine star after he beat his son in the Best Player category at The Best 2023 Awards.
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Published: 01/18/2024Updated: 4:51 p.m. | January 18, 2024
Lionel Messi received the Best Player of the Year award at The Best 2023 Awards. January 15, 2024. Both he and Erling Haaland scored 48 points each, but the Argentine footballer received more votes from the national team captains, which tipped the scales in his favor.
Since that date, they have been spreading the version on social networks that Erling Haaland's father, the former player Alfie Haaland, competed against the “flea”. “Messi has more corruption than talent” was the quote that users attributed to the former Norwegian footballer. Three posts on Zuckerberg's platform alone resulted in a total of more than 130,000 reactions. And one tweet garnered around 7,000 likes.
However, the sentence is apocryphal.
The version was shared by bloggers and even sites supporting Ronaldo. Photo: Facebook screenshots
The publication included two photos: one of father and son holding hands and the smaller one of Alfie Haaland in a jacket and tie. The first corresponded to a birthday greeting. that the current Manchester player did something to his father on November 23, 2020 in X.
The second snapshot shows Erling Haaland's father's reaction when he announced Lionel Messi as the best player at the awards ceremony. FIFA The Best Player 2023: A quick raise of the eyebrows.
After the ceremony – which neither the Argentine nor Norwegian players took part in – Alfie Haaland was approached by a reporter from El Chiringuito TV. The press officer asked him what he thought led to Messi winning the award. The former Manchester City player said everything seemed fine, there were no problems and he congratulated the “flea”. “Congratulations, Messi” he encouraged. Contrary to what was spread on social networks, he did not attack the Argentine idol on this occasion.
We searched for the phrase in Spanish and English and found no reliable results linking it to Haaland Sr. Posts from anonymous users only. We don't find any articles in Norwegian.
We also investigated whether Alfie Haaland has published anything with the term “Messi”. on X's account, which his son tagged in the congratulations on his birthday in 2020. Nothing appeared.
Diploma
There is no record of Haaland Sr. accusing Messi of corruption. He also congratulated him in statements to a Spanish sports broadcast. We rate posts as fake.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Web editor of Verificador, the data verification unit of La República. She was an editor at PerúCheck, a collaborative fact-checking initiative for the 2021 and 2022 elections. Bachelor's degree in Social Communication from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM).