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THE CLAIM: Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Mexican boxer Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez clashed on Twitter after he threatened Argentina’s Lionel Messi for kicking the Mexican national team’s shirt after the Copa del Rey match World on November 25 in which Argentina beat Mexico.
AP VERIFICATION: False. The Associated Press found no record on the Internet that the Argentine official and the Mexican boxer had published anything like this.
THE FACTS: A widely shared shot on Twitter shows an alleged conversation between the officer and the boxer.
Fernández’s tweet to which Canelo responds reads: “This man’s statements are unacceptable. Today more than ever, Lio and Argentina need everyone and everyone…”.
Canelo’s publication says that he seems to have rewound and Fernández replied: “Why don’t you pull it, Mary. He has already done a lot of damage to his country, which I appreciate. Now they are going to see them very complicated with justice. Chin$% your dirty grandma.”
But AP found no evidence in the vice president’s Twitter posts, Google cache, or the digital tool Wayback Machine, which compiles records from websites even after they have been removed, that Fernández and Álvarez posted anything like that on the network social.
On 27 November, Álvarez expressed his anger via Twitter after Messi moved the Mexico team shirt with his foot during a victory celebration in their World Cup duel in which Argentina beat Mexico 2–0.
The Mexican boxer said on Twitter that Messi was “cleaning the floor” with the Mexican shirt and that the Argentinian star had a disrespectful attitude towards Mexico.
“Let him ask God he won’t get me,” tweeted Canelo.
Messi was taking off his right boot when he, apparently unintentionally, switched the jersey he had swapped with a Mexican player after the win. The garment was on the floor while the Argentines celebrated in the locker room.
Hours later, Canelo began arguing with more people on Twitter, such as journalist David Faitelson or former Argentine champion Sergio “Kun” Agüero, who tweeted: “Mr. Canelo, don’t look for excuses or problems, you certainly don’t know. about football and what happens in a locker room”, wrote the former soccer player. “The shirts are always, after the games are over, on the floor as promised to sweat.”
Former Spanish soccer player Cesc Fàbregas also defended Messi saying that it is normal for soccer players to leave their shirts on the floor before taking them to wash.
The false version that Canelo argued with Fernández also began to spread after the Argentinian journalist Eduardo Feinmann shared the screenshot of the apocryphal tweets on his Twitter account with the word: “It seems…”.
The post is no longer visible on his Twitter account.
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