‘Greatest photograph of all time’: Ronaldo and Messi’s LV campaign breaks the internet

The campaign picture was taken by famed portrait photographer, Annie Leibovitz.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Ronaldo and Messi LV campaign chess, Ronaldo and Messi play chess for Louis Vuitton campaign, Messi and Ronaldo FIFA 2022, viral photographs Ronaldo and Messi, Indian express

One day before the opening ceremony of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, two of football’s biggest players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, shared a picture that raked up millions of likes within hours of being posted.

The photograph, which was taken as part of the French luxury brand Louis Vuitton’s campaign, shows the players indulging in a game of chess, while the chess board is held on an LV trunk. The dark-toned photo taken by famed portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz has since gone viral across social media.

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Both players posted the picture on November 19. While Messi’s post has raked up 28 million likes, Ronaldo’s post has 36 million likes as of Monday afternoon. This makes Ronaldo’s post the third-most-liked Instagram picture of all time.

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A post shared by Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano)

However, many fans are speculating the famed picture is photoshopped, judging by the behind-the-scenes video released by LV. In the video, Messi and Ronaldo do not appear in the same frame together. An interesting feature of the picture is the positioning of the chess pieces. Many chess enthusiasts pointed out on Twitter that the placements of chess pieces in the picture mimic the placements of a popular game between chess grandmasters Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura from 2017, which ended in a draw.

They’re not actually there together wtf we all got fooled

— Emil🇩🇰 #GlazersOut (@Emilio13766887) November 20, 2022

The Messi and Ronaldo picture was edited, they werent really sitting infront of each others 👀 pic.twitter.com/WjeNWEFL2r

— FC Barcelona Fans Nation (@fcbfn_live) November 20, 2022

So the Louis Vuitton photoshoot with Messi/Ronaldo features a game between Magnus and Hikaru from 2017. But… why specifically that one? pic.twitter.com/ETRWaawtra

— GothamChess (@GothamChess) November 20, 2022

The box under… 🧐 pic.twitter.com/DSHRbB2Wa9

— TC (@totalcristiano) November 19, 2022

can we call this the greatest photograph of all time? https://t.co/6EOHy6lBod

— Guinness World Records (@GWR) November 21, 2022

Can’t believe Ronaldo and Messi recreated this pic of Burna and WizKid. pic.twitter.com/KzMP9p7rb4

— Ediyie (@Abby_edussy) November 20, 2022

Ronaldo and Messi posted at the same time. I’ll be checking the likes 🌚

— KALYJAY (@gyaigyimii) November 19, 2022

To get Ronaldo and Messi together for that photo would cost nothing less than $100m.

— Man of Letters. (@Letter_to_Jack) November 19, 2022

Another interesting thing that some fans noticed was that it appeared that the LV trunk used to hold the chessboard was the same one which was used to present the FIFA World Cup trophy in 2018. This year too LV is credited with designing the FIFA World Cup trophy case.

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