Ahead of the start of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, a photo of Lionel Messi playing chess with Cristiano Ronaldo is becoming a hot topic, and is spreading quickly on social networking sites. This is a media product of the fashion house Louis Vuitton, written by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz.
Under the photo was a message written: “Victory is a psychological state”.
On Louis Vuitton’s official Instagram page (@louisvuitton), this photo has already received over 50 million likes.
Ronaldo and Messi themselves both uploaded photos of them playing chess to their respective Instagram accounts, @leomessi, @cristiano.
However, on social networking sites, many fans have questioned why Louis Vuitton and photographer Annie Leibovitz created the concept with a chessboard, when Messi and Ronaldo in the picture are two soccer superstars.
Summarized from various international news, this idea originated from a game between chess king Magnus Carlsen and grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura in 2017, and the position in the photo represents the 36th move in the match.
The result of the match ended in a draw.
Thus, Louis Vuitton seems to want to say that the confrontation between Messi and Ronaldo ended in a draw, but the whole world has witnessed the intense rivalry between the two biggest stars in world football over the last 15 years.
Other information also mentions that the large suitcase that became the Messi vs Ronaldo chessboard has a very similar pattern to the 2018 World Cup gold trophy bag designed by Louis Vuitton himself.
Therefore, it is very likely that the small suitcase contains the 2022 World Cup gold trophy. Louis Vuitton also seems to want to emphasize the idea that these two superstars will end their careers at the World Cup.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are two of the greatest modern football players of the early 21st century. The rivalry between these two names became even more intense when Ronaldo moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid, Barcelona’s eternal rival.
Long-term rivalry was the idea for Louis Vuitton to create this bold photo, as it is the first time that two contemporary football superstars have appeared in a media project.
