Lionel Messi Unseats an Egg for the Most-Liked Instagram Post Ever

It’s hard to imagine a greater triumph for soccer star Lionel Messi than leading Argentina to a dramatic victory in the 2022 World Cup and bringing the trophy home to the country for the first time since 1986. But Messi’s masterful performance brought him glory far beyond his sport.

Yes, by sharing a photo of himself holding the golden Cup with some 400 million followers, Messi officially dethroned a stock photo of a brown egg as the most-liked Instagram post of all time. It’s one more reason you could argue that he’s the GOAT.

In just two days, Messi’s “World Champions” post has garnered more than 70 million likes, shattering the all-time record held for almost four years by @world_record_egg, which in 2019 wrested the title from an Instagram post where Kylie Jenner announced her daughter Stormi’s name. Although Chris Godfrey, the London advertising creative behind the egg concept, only needed 18.2 million likes to pull off the stunt at the time, the image continued to rack up engagement and comments afterward, settling comfortably around 54 million likes. There’s even a Discord server for the “Egg Gang” that remains active to this day.

As such, World Record Egg was the most successful in a long-running trend of spite-based popularity contests built on irreverent meme humor, including the Facebook groups “Can this onion ring get more fans than Justin Bieber?” (it did) and “Can this pickle get more likes than Nickleback?” (the band’s name was spelled wrong on purpose, and yes, the pickle succeeded). Messi overtaking Instagram’s famous egg would seem to mark the end to that age of shitposting and, perhaps, the dawn of a new sincerity.

Godfrey did not immediately respond to a request for comment as to whether this is a bittersweet moment for him and the egg, or if he was emotionally prepared to move on. In the egg’s Instagram stories, he acknowledged that Messi had taken the crown “for now” and asked followers to pick their favorite between the Argentinian and Portuguese soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo. He also shared a few memes.

In the Discord, meanwhile, users sounded happy for Messi, with many calling him the game’s greatest player — while still showing due respect for the egg. On Wednesday, one person commented, “crazy how only person who can beat the egg is the best athlete of all time.” Another noted that “the egg made history.”

“Messi wouldn’t exist without egg,” argued a third.

In fact, as the likes on Messi’s photo ticked into the 40 million range, some egg-likers strategically chose to unlike the egg to help him come out on top. The effect was likely negligible, though it spoke to the passion of his supporters. Others, presumably ambivalent about Messi winning this contest, liked the egg for the first time, boosting it to around 58 million — not enough to retain the most-liked title.

And already, it appears that a different photo of Messi in bed with the World Cup trophy — which had close to 50 million likes as of Wednesday afternoon — is poised to knock the egg out of its current second-place spot. Right now, it’s number three, with Messi appearing in four of the top five photos.

What lessons can we learn from this passing of the torch? First, obviously, that soccer really is the most popular sport in the world. But also that nothing is permanent online — nor should it be. The beauty of the egg’s four-year reign as king of Instagram is that it came to an end, in such a thrilling moment of celebration and community. Just as it heralded us moving on from news about Kylie Jenner’s baby, it too could only be replaced by something else.

And Messi should keep that in mind. For he cannot sit on the throne without challenges on all sides. They will come, and on a day that is distant to us now, one will prevail. Enjoy the view from up there while you can.

From Rolling Stone US.