Does an image show FIFA President Gianni Infantino looking anxious after Argentine forward Lionel Messi missed a penalty kick during a World Cup match against Egypt? No, that's not true: The image is a screenshot from the telecast of a different game. It was shared in other social media posts ahead of the July 7, 2026, match, which kicked off at noon Eastern time in the United States.
The claim appeared in a post and image (archived here) by the @TouchmineX account on X on July 7, 2026. It read:
🚨📸- FIFA President Infantino's reaction after Messi missed the penalty.
Daddy is sad!
This is what the image looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @TouchmineX on X.)
The image of Infantino has become a widely recycled meme used for various World Cup moments. All of the following posts were made in the days ahead of the Argentina-Egypt match:
This post (archived here) by the @dcec_oficial account was published on Instagram on July 3, 2026:
(Image source: post by @dcec_oficial on Instagram.)
This post (archived here) by the @sport_festival2026 account was published on Threads on July 4, 2026:
(Image source: post by @sport_festival2026 on Threads.)
This post (archived here) by the @Joshua__Ubeku account was published on X on July 6, 2026:
(Image source: post by @Joshua__Ubeku on X.)
It is unclear which match this screenshot of Infantino is from. The image directly above suggests it is from the Portugal-Spain game from July 6, 2026. Lead Stories was unable to review the DSports feed of the match to confirm it. DSports is a Latin American sports television network.
