Where does the time go? It is already almost one full year since Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo combined forces to break the internet with a dual post on their respective Instagram accounts.
An image of the superstar pair playing chess atop a pile of Louis Vuitton luggage appeared on social media on Nov. 19, the day before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar kicked off, and went viral like few other posts before it ever have.
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With the anniversary of the iconic post coming up, rap superstars Drake and J. Cole have recreated the scene for a new music video. Drake has been steadily releasing the music and visuals from his new, chart-topping album “For All the Dogs,” and the duo are also due to begin their joint tour of North America early next year.
The chess scene appears in the video for the pair’s latest offering, “First Person Shooter,” in which Drake and J. Cole engage in a running head-to-head duel over a number of games and activities including table tennis and basketball and is chock full of references to internet memes and cultural moments.
In the scene of the pair playing chess Drake is adopting Messi’s stance, deep in thought with his hand on his chin, while J. Cole delivers one of his verses while sat in Ronaldo’s place.
The original chess photo did mega numbers, with Ronaldo’s version of the post on Instagram quickly being liked more than 30 million times inside the first 24 hours while Messi’s got 24.5m. Since then, a total of 83.8m likes have been garnered between the posts by Ronaldo (42.7m,) Messi (32.8m) and Louis Vuitton (8.3m.)
It’s no surprise that Ronaldo’s post was the most-liked, given that he is the king of Instagram. The Portugal captain is the most-followed person on the entire platform with 612m followers.
However, Messi can take solace in the fact that two of his Instagram posts — a photo of him holding the 2022 World Cup aloft (75.6m likes) and a post featuring him drinking maté in bed alongside the trophy (54.7m) — are respectively first and third on the list of the all-time most-liked posts shared on the platform.
Oh, and the fact that he has won the Ballon d’Or eight times to Ronaldo’s five, and ended the World Cup last year by lifting the trophy for Argentina.
As Drake asks in his latest track: “Who the GOAT?”