Legendary footballer Lionel Messi visited several Indian cities as part of his GOAT India Tour 2025. Amid this, a picture purportedly showing Messi alongside cricketing greats Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma at Mumbai’s Marine Drive is being widely circulated on social media.
The above post can be seen here (archive)
NM VERIFIED
NewsMobile verified the viral picture and found it to be AI-generated.
A reverse image search, combined with keyword-based scrutiny, yielded no credible news reports, verified photographs, or posts from the players involved. Neither mainstream media outlets nor the official social media handles of Messi or the Indian cricketers have shared any such image.
Importantly, a meeting featuring Messi and four of India’s biggest cricketing icons would have attracted extensive national and international media coverage, further casting doubt on the claim.
A closer examination of the image reveals multiple red flags associated with AI-generated content, including uneven lighting, unnatural facial blending and overly smooth background textures — all indicative of synthetic manipulation.
To corroborate the findings, NewsMobile analysed the image using AI-detection tools Hive Moderation and Sightengine. Both platforms independently flagged the image as AI-generated.
Meanwhile, on December 14, 2025, Lionel Messi did meet Sachin Tendulkar at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium — a well-documented interaction that was officially shared and widely reported.
In conclusion, the viral image claiming to show Lionel Messi with Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma at Mumbai’s Marine Drive is AI-generated.
