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Anyone active on social media has undoubtedly seen the phrase "Likes are not endorsements" in a person's profile biography. It is simply a disclaimer that seeing someone "like" something doesn't necessarily mean they actually enjoy or agree with whatever was expressed in that specific post.
Anyone who says this statement has clearly never run afoul of Cristiano Ronaldo's long-standing, personal rivalry with Lionel Messi. In the latest episode of an entanglement that has become increasingly one-sided in Messi's favor, we point to Ronaldo's Instagram profile featuring 677 million followers at the time of this writing — in other words, as visible as one could possibly be on social media — "liking" a post from Espejo Público, a Spanish news show, alleging that FIFA helped Messi's Argentina reach the 2026 men's World Cup Final.
(Note: This game was Messi's third World Cup Final appearance with Argentina. Ronaldo never took Portugal to the biggest game in sports during his World Cup career.)
You know what I'm referring to here. The conspiracy theory about FIFA rigging the tournament so the greatest soccer player of all time, Messi, could go out on top. To put it lightly, a dominant Spain side ensured he did not.
That didn't stop Ronaldo from tacitly endorsing a clip amplifying this conspiracy anyway. Woof:
It is so Ronaldo, or whoever is running his account (it's hard to believe that someone with Ronaldo's infamous ego wouldn't, in fact, be behind his profile as much as possible), to try and add credence to this silly and ultimately meaningless conspiracy with his millions of fans.
Because, as many of you know, likes are public on Instagram. When you follow someone on the platform, you can see them having doled out a recent like, their like on a post you're scrolling over with a little more time after the fact, or both. Ronaldo, assuredly, knows this while spreading nonsense like this from a profile with a following base of an entire continent's population. That's the point.
There's petty, then there's whatever Ronaldo still thinks he has going on with Messi. The show's over, buddy. Messi won. And we know this because Ronaldo is now amplifying thought processes like this that could be charitably described as a reach, at best.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Yes, Cristiano Ronaldo liked Instagram video accusing FIFA of helping Argentina in World Cup
