What is the Messi Trophy trend on TikTok?

TikTok users have been using photos of Lionel Messi with the World Cup to go viral on the app through the Messi Trophy trend. But, what is it and what’s it all about? 

At the end of 2022, Lionel Messi finally ticked off the final piece of his footballing resume by winning the last major honor that alluded him – the World Cup. 

It wasn’t just his home nation of Argentina that was delighted for him either. Football fans from around the globe were ecstatic that he’d put an end to the GOAT conversation by lifting the World Cup.

That on-the-pitch success led to plenty off it as well, most notably online. Messi’s social media accounts start tracking record numbers, with his posts about winning the international tournament becoming the most-liked post in Instagram history. Now, he’s taken over TikTok too, but it’s not totally about him.

What is TikTok’s Messi Trophy trend?

If you’ve been on TikTok in the past few months, you’ve more than likely come across the Messi Trophy trend. 

If you haven’t, well, it might not be as it sounds. While you might be thinking that people are replicating his iconic trophy lift from World Cup, that isn’t the case. Instead, it involves short clips of people pretending to be asked if they like football and if they watched the World Cup.

Upon answering yes, they’ll be asked if they saw themselves in the photo of Messi with the trophy. From here, the video zooms in and typically shows an explicit image of the person whose video it is. Though, there are also examples of trolls using it as well. 

As of writing, a few of the videos have taken off massively, with the hashtag MessiTrophy racking up millions of views on TikTok.

Plenty of videos have been deleted too, given that some of them are outright breaking TikTok’s guidelines on explicit content. So, you have been warned.