The graphics sprang up across social media, some in the yellow and blue of Saudi Arabian team Al Nassr, others in the flamingo pink of MLS side Inter Miami. The source of engagement was hardly new: Messi vs Ronaldo, the forever war of global football.

Except, this time, it was not about Cristiano and Lionel, the duopoly that defined a generation — instead, it was their sons: Cristiano Jr and Thiago.

The eye-catching post on X came on Feb. 7, from an account that presented itself as “Skye Sports Premier League (fan).” The caption read: “Ronaldo Jr and Thiago Messi just scored 10+ goals in their last match.” Followed by a flames emoji and a head-exploding emoji, the two graphics accompanying the post laid out a chain of events. Ronaldo, aged 14 and whose image was used in the graphic, had scored 10 goals in a 10-9 victory for Al Nassr’s youth team against Al Ittihad, while in the corresponding graphic, Thiago Messi, aged 12, had scored 11 goals in a 12-0 win for Inter Miami in the Under-13 MLS Cup against Atlanta United.

The post threw up curiosities. The first instinct is natural intrigue: are mini Messi and child Cristiano really this good? But then, the rational side took over: was any of this actually true?

Amid a search on X, Facebook or Google, the lay reader could very much be forgiven for believing the post to have been accurate.

Reports followed from mainstream outlets, including the Daily Mail, OneFootball, CNN Chile and the Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo. On Facebook, one of the world’s most-followed football reporters, Fabrizio Romano, posted an image of the graphic claiming Messi had scored 11 goals, with the caption “Thiago Messi cooked.” Romano has 22 million followers on Facebook alone and received 245,000 likes on his post. Other major accounts posted similarly, including TNT Sports, which broadcasts the Premier League and Champions League in the UK and Ireland, sharing Messi Jr’s exploits to its 2.1 million following on X and 4.5 million on Instagram. None of these accounts posted images or clips from a game, so there did not appear to be any evidence.

The reason for that? Neither achievement was real.

The MLS Under-13 Cup does not exist. At that level, MLS youth age groups play in MLS Next, where games are 35 minutes per half, meaning it is also impossible for Messi to have scored in the 76th, 87th and 89th minutes of the game, as the graphic had suggested.

Spokespeople for Atlanta United and Inter Miami confirmed to The Athletic the game did not take place, although Inter Miami did say Thiago Messi plays in the club’s academy. The Atlanta official joked that the graphic must have been sent to him 10 times during the previous five days. A spokesman for Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia also said that the viral claim involving Ronaldo Jr, which supposedly ended 10-9, was untrue. He pointed us to the website of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, where scores for games in the under-15 league are recorded.

There was a match between the under-15 sides of Al Ittihad and Ronaldo’s Al Nassr in mid-January, except it was won 4-2 by Al Ittihad. The goalscorers are not recorded on the site and The Athletic has not been able to establish whether Ronaldo scored or even played in that game. A spokesperson for Cristiano Ronaldo confirmed that the viral claims on social media were false.

So, what exactly is going on? Take a deep breath because these claims form just one part of a clumsy web of viral content, in which Ronaldo, Messi and their children are part of the collateral. This is a story that appears to emanate from an advertising campaign gone awry by an Australian gambling company — Stake — leaving celebrities, broadcasters, a Premier League football club, UFC, a Formula 1 team, X and even a porn actress caught in the crosshairs.

The most obvious original explanation had been that these claims about Ronaldo and Messi’s children were simply the latest frontier in the most famous rivalry in football fandom. In their book, ‘Messi v Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two GOATs,’ Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson write that “siding with Messi or Ronaldo has become not merely a statement of preference, but something closer to an article of religious faith.”

They add: “In the darkest wastelands of the internet — obscure subreddits, men’s fitness forums — it is fought on a battlefield of rage-tweets, vitriolic screeds, and dubiously sourced statistics wielded like a blunt weapon.”

Messi and Ronaldo at the draw for the 2019-20 Champions League group stage (Harold Cunningham – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

In this context, the achievements, real or imaginary, of their children became a tool in a petty squabble. William Dance, a researcher at Lancaster University specializing in disinformation in online spaces, tells The Athletic: “Misinformation flourishes when there’s high emotion involved. In football, it tends to be excitement, but the nature of the sport is that there are always continuous updates about players, especially mega-celebrities like Messi and Ronaldo. They become their own information ecosystem. People are more susceptible to misinformation because they suspend their disbelief around these figures.

“When they also have that binary position … that leads you to a system where people entrench to the far poles. Algorithms on social media actively promote this content, irrespective of whether it’s true or not. You’ve got people who are predisposed to believe this because of the environment, and then you’ve got algorithms actively promoting it. Whether it’s celebrities, politicians or even during the pandemic, when it impacted scientific experts, you find that the misinformation targeting them often bleeds into those surrounding them as well. Children or families end up being collateral damage.”

Hyperbolic claims about Ronaldo’s son had been circulating for weeks before the Messi counterclaim emerged. On Jan. 29, a since-deleted tweet posted by a Ronaldo fan account called @owngooal, again using the 14-year-old’s image, claimed he had scored all seven goals in a 7-0 win against Al Hilal. This was viewed over four million times, yet the most recent result between the two teams in the under-15 league was a 1-1 draw in October. On Feb. 4, another one landed from the same account, seen by 4.3 million people, claiming he’d scored 10 goals in a 10-9 win — again untrue.

The earliest trace of a similar pro-Messi post that I could identify appears to be from Feb. 5 and emanates from the fan account @MessiFCWorld. This claims that Messi’s son scored 11 goals against Atlanta United. This was seen by more than one million people on X and was reproduced extensively on social media and legacy media outlets.

Neither the Messi fan account, nor the Ronaldo one – neither of which are affiliated to the players – commented when asked by The Athletic if they were the originating sources of the misinformation.

In the days that followed claims of Thiago Messi’s exploits, the Ronaldo fan account went further, claiming their own prodigy had scored 12 goals in a 12-11 win against Al Hilal, notching up another three million views. Then, on Feb. 14, the same account claimed that the apparently unstoppable child of Ronaldo had scored all 15 goals in a 15-0 win against Al Ittihad, in a post retweeted more than 400 times.

As The Athletic studied the many posts springing up, it appeared there was more to this story than peculiar oneupmanship. That is because the logo of Stake.com, the Australian online casino and betting company, often seemed to be scrawled across the graphics of posts discussing the sons of Ronaldo and Messi. Neither player has a commercial relationship with Stake, but the company is the shirt sponsor of Premier League club Everton, as well as a sponsor of UFC and the title sponsor of Swiss Formula 1 team Sauber.

It has been in the news over the past week after the company announced it was to give up its license in Great Britain. This followed the start of an investigation by the Gambling Commission into an advert featuring the porn actress Bonnie Blue. Blue, whose real name is Tia Billinger, shot to fame in January when she attempted to break a world record for sex with the highest number of men within a 12-hour timeframe.

The investigation into Stake came when a post on X included a video recorded outside Nottingham Trent University, detailing the porn star’s “promise” to perform another feat of sexual stamina. Stake’s logo was visible on the video in the X posts, albeit not posted from an official Stake account.

It was seen millions of times across the various accounts from which it was posted. There is no suggestion the actress was involved or aware of Stake’s logo being superimposed. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s advertising regulator, received complaints, including one seen by The Athletic by the Coalition to End Gambling Ads (CEGA), which said the advert breached the ASA code on multiple levels, including indecency and a clause that says “marketing communications must not link gambling to seduction, sexual success or enhanced attractiveness.” This was referred to the Gambling Commission, which began an investigation.

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Stake did not cite the investigation when announcing its departure from Britain, instead calling its decision to leave “strategic” and claiming it wished to focus on growth markets in Italy and Brazil.

So, what’s this all got to with the children of Messi and Ronaldo? Well, the watermarking of Stake’s logo in tweets is also present in the claims by @OwnGooal of Ronaldo Jr’s seven-, 10-, 12- and 15-goal hauls. These were viewed millions of times on X across multiple accounts. In one instance, a post by the fan content creator UTDTrey (1.3 million followers) shared Ronaldo Jr’s fake 10-goal haul with the caption, “Might be time to start telling Thiago Messi to come outside.” This post watermarked the Stake logo across the bottom of the graphic. Another account shared a 10-tweet thread with the Stake logo attached that claimed (often falsely) that 10 professional football players had faked their age. Another account called @TeamCRonaldo shared pictures of Ronaldo’s mother and also pictures of several of his children, all with the Stake logo across the bottom once more. Ronaldo’s spokesperson confirmed he had no relationship with Stake and that his actual team has no involvement in this account.

Jack Jones is a partner at Sheridans, a law firm, where he advises clients in advertising, sport, games and digital media industries on commercial and intellectual property issues. He warns that individuals whose image has been used without permission can “consider legal action for unlawful processing of their personal data, privacy, false association and passing off.”

The Athletic asked all of the accounts mentioned to clarify if they had a commercial relationship with Stake, or if either Stake or an agency claiming to represent Stake had provided any guidelines for the type of content that should be attached to the logo, but none replied. Stake, too, did not respond to the question about guidelines.

This type of misinformation and controversial use of photos is significant because it appears to be the consequence of a guerrilla advertising campaign which has seen Stake promoted by football fan accounts on social media that have five, six and seven-figure followings. The Athletic has spoken to people who operate accounts that have been approached, some who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not wish to disclose business arrangements publicly.

Multiple fan accounts said they had been asked to use a Stake logo in their graphics and that they were incentivized by the amount of engagement a post creates. The Athletic has been told that accounts that partner with Stake are paid via cryptocurrency, a claim to which Stake did not respond.

The use of Ronaldo and Messi is likely because they are proven drivers of engagement online. As an example, Ronaldo’s YouTube channel recorded 45 million views when he took a “Couples Quiz” with his partner, Georgina Rodriguez, five months ago, and 21 million when Rodriguez assessed his outfits. As such, any material — true or otherwise — about Ronaldo, Messi and their families is likely to drive engagement, which in turn increases the returns for these content creators.

The Athletic has seen evidence of an intermediary, a digital agency called Elevate Media, offering via direct message on X to broker deals with fan accounts on behalf of Stake. In direct messages posted on Twitter, Elevate offered an “upfront fee” to one account to promote a logo and in a follow-up tweet, they said, “All videos and photos must be posted with the Stake banner.” Separately, we have seen evidence of an account being offered by Elevate the chance to earn around $5 or $6 per 100,000 views for promoting an unspecified brand logo, with promise that several Twitter pages “are making between $5,000 and $10,000 from the deal.”

Elevate did not respond to any questions and Stake also did not respond to questions about Elevate.

Following two emails from The Athletic to Elevate, the company’s brand account @Arthur_Elevate appeared to have been disabled on Monday, saying it no longer existed. Later the same day, the account appeared to have been restored with a new username.

Another fan account told The Athletic it was offered a paid partnership to use a Stake logo by a middleman agency and was asked to continue the negotiation via an anonymous account on Telegram. Others said they partnered directly with Stake, while a spokesperson for Stake told The Athletic: “The presence of the Stake logo on content does not necessarily indicate a formal relationship or sponsorship by Stake.”

Stake did not clarify which accounts have formal, or informal, relationships of any kind with the company, but it would appear that the practice of watermarking Stake onto graphics has become a trend in itself within content creating circles. Stake did not respond when asked what, if any, regulatory or legal guidelines were provided to partner accounts or agencies that may be partnering with accounts on their behalf. A spokesperson said: “Stake does not condone the unauthorized or inappropriate use of its logo. When made aware of such instances, Stake reviews the matter and takes appropriate steps, which may include requesting removal of the content.”

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Stake’s advertising approach has further potential consequences, most notably because the UK’s ASA rules say that marketing communications for gambling must “not include a child or young person,” or “include a person or character whose example is likely to be followed by those aged under 18 years or who has a strong appeal to those aged under 18.” The code also states that “marketing communications should be legal, decent, honest and truthful.”

The posts on X have also been visible to users in the United States. This means the posts featuring Stake may also be at risk of breaching X’s advertising regulations, as first outlined by 404 Media. X forbids the promotion of gambling content, except in specified countries where it is permitted with restrictions. For the U.S., these restrictions include that the advertiser must be “domiciled” in the U.S., yet Stake was founded in Australia and is owned and operated by Medium Rare NV in the Caribbean island of Curaçao, according to Stake.com. The website in the U.S., called Stake.us, says it is owned by Sweepsteaks Limited and provides an address in Cyprus. Stake did not respond when asked if it is breaching X regulations, while X also did not respond. The American Gaming Association’s responsible marketing code for sports wagering also states that “influencers or athletes appearing in advertising should be a minimum of 21 years old.”

Stake’s logo has also been watermarked across hundreds of posts on X seen by The Athletic responding to viral moments in European football, including fan accounts taking footage or screenshots from broadcasters that own the rights to the action. The Athletic has seen graphics posted by these accounts in recent weeks using moving or still images from Premier League broadcasters, including TNT Sports in the UK, NBC in the U.S., Viaplay in Scandinavia, Ziggo in the Netherlands and beIN Sport in the Middle East and North Africa region. The lawyer Jones explains that this can cause problems because rights holders are monitoring whether it is “fair use by fans engaging with their sport” or “a commercial use.” As the posts, or Stake, may be commercially benefiting by applying the betting company’s logo to the rights holder content, it may be deemed the latter.

A spokesperson for beIN told The Athletic: “BeIN have no partnership whatsoever with Stake. This is a combined case of piracy and illegal advertising. We are issuing a takedown order immediately for the content that has been illegally obtained from our channels, and looking into further measures to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Jones added: “There is a common misconception that what is in the public domain is free to use. This is not always the case. Fan accounts largely post social content owned by rights holders, online clips and images, which contain intellectual property. Rights holders have partners that pay money to associate with their brand or content and are therefore incentivized to monitor and enforce. Partnering with Stake, a gambling business hugely under the microscope, puts fan accounts on the radar of rights owners as it’s not only commercial use, but also an association with a business that would not be able to legally operate in some countries, as some countries forbid sports betting or advertising of sports betting. This puts fan accounts in the firing line of legal action and enforcement.”

When The Athletic first approached Stake with many of the issues raised within this article last week, we did not receive answers, and the posts flagged, particularly using the images of Ronaldo’s family and Messi’s son, remained online. However, after The Athletic approached Everton, UFC, Sauber and the Premier League on Friday, Stake then replied on Saturday morning via a spokesperson to say they take “appropriate steps which may include requesting removal of the content, when made aware of the unauthorized or inappropriate use of its logo.”

Several of the posts then appeared to have been deleted overnight — which is why they are included as screenshots rather than embedded tweets in this report — but long after amassing millions of views and awareness for days, weeks or months for Stake. Even this weekend, after Stake was alerted to numerous concerns, accounts that claim to be partnered with the gambling company continued to use images from Premier League broadcasts, or images they do not own, and slapped the Stake watermark across their posts. The Premier League say their match footage is only made available to official broadcast licensees and partners and that any unauthorized use outside these relationships would be an infringement of the Premier League’s rights.

For Everton, it is particularly awkward if their front-of-shirt sponsor is deemed to be connected to the misuse of Premier League footage. Everton, who The Athletic understands intend to retain a partnership with Stake that ends in the summer of 2026, held discussions with the company this week amid the blaze of negative publicity. They declined to comment for this report, as did the UFC and Sauber.

Stake.com advertising on the Everton shirt during the Premier League match in 2023 (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

Dylan Penketh co-runs UtdDistrict, a Manchester United fan-led media outlet that has 947,000 followers on X, and he explained how some accounts that claim to have Stake partnerships conspire to translate the deal into money. He said: “We got the message from them (Elevate). I have no idea about the legitimacy of that one or if they were acting on behalf of Stake. I’ve always said to the guys I work with, ‘We’re never going nowhere near anything like this’. But so many people have. The Messi-Ronaldo stuff is part of it. But it’s everywhere.

“There are big fan accounts with millions of followers constantly throwing all this stuff out. I have also been told there are WhatsApp group chats between big accounts that all have Stake deals where they interact with each other to inflate each other’s numbers. Someone will purposefully say something really outrageous on their one big account, send it to another person and go, ‘Can you quote disagreeing with me?’ This then boosts engagement and engagement inflates the numbers, then they get more money. The news can be completely fake. It can be completely real. The whole point is you need to drive as many engagements as possible.”

Jones, the legal expert, calls it “a high-risk marketing strategy.”

“Gambling is a heavily regulated industry, including its marketing,” he said. “Appropriate checks, balances and approvals should be undertaken when promoting/advertising gambling to ensure compliance. Many content creators may not be aware of or fully appreciate the laws of promoting gambling. Falling foul could amount to public relations disasters, but also legal escalation from regulatory bodies and the rights holders themselves.”

(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; photos: Carlos Sipán, Abdullah Ahmed, Pierre Suu, Emma Garcia / Getty Images)