After the Argentine national team won the FIFA World Cup, news circulated in several languages around the world claiming that the Argentine Central Bank had issued a currency with a picture of Lionel Messi on it.
Photos along with these reports bore a picture of what appears to be a thousand-peso banknote with a drawing of Messi - stating that the Central Bank of Buenos Aires issued an official currency with the image of this star who led his country to win the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
These publications garnered hundreds of posts and tens of thousands of interactions on Arabic-language communication sites, in addition to a wide spread in several languages around the world.
Central Bank Denies
However, Argentina did not issue a currency with the image of Messi, and there is no trace of this news on any reliable source, knowing that news of this kind would arouse global media interest.
Subsequently, a source in the Central Bank denied the validity of what was stated in these reports.
"We do not have any project to issue a currency with Messi's image on it," Fernando Alonso, a spokesman for the central bank told AFP," confirming that no currency will be issued with the Argentine player's image.
According to the financial newspaper El Financiero, the central bank has held a meeting with a desire to mark the historic World Cup win, but, the decision was ‘jokingly’ proposed.
The central bank already issued commemorative coins when Argentina won its first World Cup in 1978, as well as during the celebrations for the Bicentennial and for the 50th anniversary of the death of Eva Perón.
“This option was ‘jokingly’ proposed by members of the Argentine Central Bank, although the most enthusiastic directors agreed on that a banknote with this design would awaken the spirit of Argentines,” El Financiero reported.
"The country has already done enough after the victories in the 2021 of Copa América, the Final match against Italy,” reported the newspaper.
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