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Journalism of Courage
Lionel Messi etched his name in history by not just lifting the FIFA World Cup trophy at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar on Sunday but by also getting his victory post recognised as the most liked Instagram post in the social media app’s history. The set of pictures shared alongside a heartfelt note surpassed the well-known egg’s record of 58.12 million likes by amassing over 71 million likes.
The first of the 10 pictures that the star footballer chose to upload was captured by Getty photographer Shaun Botterill, in which he can be seen sitting on Sergio Aguero’s shoulders with his hands firmly holding the World Cup trophy.
In an interaction with CNN, Botterill revealed that the photographers at Sunday’s World Cup final decided that one among them will go and stand on the pitch near the main stand where a vast majority of Argentina fans were present. After the presentation, Messi made his way to the fans making the photographer head toward the goal at the end of the pitch.
“I almost got trapped, but just got trapped in the right place. I think if most of us [photographers] are honest, you always need a bit of luck and I had a bit on Sunday night,” he said adding, “Messi was just there and he didn’t move that much, sometimes you get pushed around, and he just was doing all the bits, one-handed, two hands on the trophy.”
He admitted that the photographers had no idea what was going to happen at the end. “You can plan for the trophy lift, but you can’t plan for the runaround and you don’t know how chaotic it’s going to be. I was pretty close to him, I’m probably like two meters away maximum.”
Expressing his feelings at that moment, the photographer added that it was “surreal”. He said, “It is quite a weird feeling, it’s a bit surreal, you go: ‘Holy s**t,’ he’s right there where you want him to be and that doesn’t happen often. Even his hands coming up [with the trophy], I think the way he’s holding it and smiling, he’s definitely got a moment with the fans.”
Once clicked, Botterill sent the photo to his editors and his son happened to be working on the editing desk that night. “My eldest messaged me and said: ‘I’ve edited your picture dad, it’s a pretty nice picture,’” he recalled.
While he believes that “it was a pretty good picture”, the photographer said that the cropped photo which Messi used on Instagram wasn’t his favourite version of the same. According to Botterill, the wider view provided greater context and captured the adulation Messi was receiving in a better way.
“It’s got that impact, hasn’t it? It’s got the happy face, it’s got the joy, the trophy and it kind of looks chaotic,” he said of the photograph.
His photograph may have become the most-liked photo on Instagram, but Botterill, ironically, isn’t on the social media app. “That’s the funny thing for me because I’m not on Instagram, I wouldn’t even know how to crop an Instagram picture. It’s only when a colleague messaged me and said: ‘Oh, have you seen how many likes [your photo has]?’ So it’s slightly ironic that all of a sudden I’m this old guy not on social media that, obviously on the back of a great footballer, has put out a picture that’s been picked up a bit. So it’s quite funny really – I got off the plane and didn’t know what the hell was going on,” he said.
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