​Is the image of FIFA President Gianni Infantino looking anxious after Lionel Messi missed a penalty during a World Cup match against Egypt real? No, that claim is false. The screenshot circulating as Infantino’s reaction actually comes from a telecast of a different game. It was shared on social media before the July 7, 2026 match that kicked off at noon Eastern time in the United States, contributing to a misleading narrative around the moment.
The post and image originated from the X account @TouchmineX on July 7, 2026, with the caption: “🚨📸- FIFA President Infantino’s reaction after Messi missed the penalty. Daddy is sad!” The image shown in that post represented Infantino’s reaction at the time of writing, and the source credited the post by @TouchmineX on X. Over time, this same Infantino image has become a widely recycled meme that is repurposed to comment on various World Cup moments, regardless of the actual event depicted.
In the days leading up to the Argentina–Egypt match, several other posts used Infantino’s image to fuel speculative or humorous narratives. For example, a post archived on Instagram from July 3, 2026, by the @dcec_oficial account featured a version of the image. A July 4, 2026, Threads post from @sport_festival2026 carried the same meme, and a July 6, 2026, X post by @Joshua__Ubeku also circulated the image. These posts illustrate how a single image can be recycled across multiple platforms to generate attention and speculation ahead of a major World Cup clash.
What complicates the claim is the visual context of the image itself. The screenshot appears to depict Infantino reacting during a match, but it is not definitively tied to the Argentina–Egypt game. In fact, the available evidence suggests the image could be from a different match—potentially the Portugal–Spain game on July 6, 2026. Lead Stories, while attempting to verify the original context, was unable to review DSports’ feed for the specific match to confirm the exact moment captured. DSports is a Latin American sports television network, and accessing their footage would be necessary to confirm whether the screenshot aligns with the Portugal–Spain confrontation or another contest.
In short, the widely shared claim that the image shows Infantino reacting to Messi missing a penalty against Egypt is not substantiated. The image surfaced during coverage of other events and was reshared as a meme and rumor in the lead-up to the Argentina–Egypt match. Until a definitive, verifiable source links the exact moment to the Egypt game, the claim remains a miscaptioned or context-mismatched meme rather than a factual depiction of the described incident. This situation highlights the dangers of relying on a single image as evidence of a specific event in fast-moving sports narratives, especially when meme culture and social media amplification can blend fact and fiction.