Lionel Messi assassination plot: US police reveal suicide attack threat

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FT Desk

Authorities in the United States have revealed that Lionel Messi was the target of more than one assassination threat during the 2026 World Cup.

According to Marca, the FBI and the IPCC (Center for International Police Cooperation) were the two organisations tasked with dealing with any kind of terrorist threats during the World Cup, and a US police report has confirmed that Messi was the player who received the most individual threats to his life when the tournament was taking place.

Before the group stage match between defending champions Argentina and Jordan, a man called Dallas airport and threatened to break into the stadium along with two other accomplices carrying homemade bombs and an assault rifle, specifically mentioning Messi as a target.

Then, ahead of the Round of 16 tie between Argentina and Egypt, an individual wrote on social media:

"I'm going to enter the Atlanta Stadium and I'm going to blow up Messi with four bombs stuck to my body..."

During that same fixture, the police received a call saying that there were bombs placed in bins in several areas of the stadium. Both of these threats turned out to be hoaxes, as a full investigation using sniffer dogs was carried out.

Cristiano Ronaldo was also the target of similar threats.

A police report states that FIFA alerted the FBI after a man was reported to be acting suspiciously and had asked for information about where Ronaldo was staying.

Two days later, Houston police found and arrested the same man inside the hotel hosting the Portuguese squad. In a separate incident in Toronto, another individual was arrested after attempting to enter an elevator alongside Ronaldo, reportedly saying he wanted to take a selfie with the Al-Nassr striker.

One of the most controversial matches of the World Cup was that aforementioned tie between Egypt and Argentina, as many football fans online felt that the South Americans were given preferential treatment by the officials.

In the eyes of those fans, the most egregious incident came when Egypt scored one of the goals of the tournament, a sweeping counterattack that was subsequently disallowed after VAR determined that Lisandro Martinez was fouled in the build-up.

The report from US police says that the referee of that fixture, Francois Letexier, received over 6,000 hateful and threatening messages on his WhatsApp after the game, which Argentina went on to win in dramatic fashion.