Lionel Messi’s World Cup photo has become the most liked Instagram post with over 63 million likes as of 17:30 (WAT) on Tuesday.
The Argentine forward had in the wake of his team’s World Cup triumph shared a photo of himself hoisting the trophy.
In the aftermath of Argentina’s thrilling penalty shootout win over France, the PSG star took to Instagram to post 10 pictures of the celebrations in Qatar.
Messi, 35, captioned the Sunday photo: “CAMPEONES DEL MUNDO!!!!!!!”
Messi accompanied the post with a caption that read: “WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!!!! I dreamed it so many times, I wanted it so much that I still haven’t fallen, I can’t believe it……
“Thank you very much to my family, to all who support me and also to all who believed in us. We demonstrate once again that Argentines when we fight together and united we are capable of achieving what we set out to do.
“The merit belongs to this group, which is above individualities, it is the strength of all fighting for the same dream”.
The post eclipsed the egg photo (shared by a user named @world_record_egg) which previously held the record of the most-liked photo with 56.5 million likes as of Tuesday afternoon. That photo was posted on 4 January, 2019.
But in a bid to outpace the record, some Instagram users have mobilized to like the egg photo.
It surpassed Ronaldo’s post from last month – an advert for Louis Vuitton ahead of the World Cup in which the Portuguese star and Messi were seen playing chess that had accumulated 41.9 million likes.
Ronaldo is still the most-followed person on Instagram, though, with a staggering tally of 519 million.
Last month he became the first person ever to reach 500 million followers on the social media site.
The 37-year-old Portuguese star leads the way in terms of followers with Messi a clear distance behind in second – the two are the only athletes inside the top 10.
Kylie Jenner, Selena Gomez, Dwayne Johnson, Ariana Grande, Kim Kardashian, Beyonce, Khloe Kardashian and Justin Bieber complete the top 10.
