- Nine years ago, I took a photo to show off my outfit while visiting friends in Los Angeles.
- When I posted on Instagram, a friend said my shadow looked like Messi's face.
In 2014, I spent a few weeks Los Angeles for work and to visit friends. I was feeling my outfit, so I asked a friend to take a photo of me posing against our office building.
Without thinking too much, I uploaded it to Instagram and went out for dinner and drinks. Hours later, when I came back to my Airbnb, I saw that a friend had commented on the photo, saying "Haha your shadow looks like a face," immediately followed by another comment saying "WAIT! It's Messi's face!"
I kind of saw it, but also thought my friend was exaggerating. After all, we are both Argentine and absolutely obsessed with soccer star Lionel Messi. So I posted the picture on Twitter and asked if other people saw it too.
That's when that photo went viral for the first time.
After posing my question, I couldn't keep up with my Twitter mentions. People were retweeting it nonstop. Some thought I had photoshopped it (I didn't), and others thought it was a sign that Messi, who is one of the best soccer players in the world, was basically God. My Argentine group chat said that his appearance in my shadow was similar to the phenomenon of religious images showing up on toast.
—Conz Preti ®️ (@conz) October 14, 2014
My photo was picked up by outlets all over the world, including BuzzFeed (where I worked at the time) and ESPN. Soon I was giving interviews left and right for radio shows and media outlets.
My friends were in disbelief, both that my shadow looked like our idol and also that now every website they opened had my face plastered on it. I had just started dating my now-husband, and he sent me a text after one of his friends shared my photo in a group chat, saying, "Guess my friends already know who you are!"
Weeks later, on Halloween, two of my friends dressed as me in my viral photo.
The photo has gone viral every year
I thought that it would eventually die down, but it hasn't. While I have the original tweet pinned to my profile to prove that it is in fact me in the photo, it goes viral again every year. Then my social feeds are filled again with friends tagging me and letting me know that it's happening — like it is right now. Three different soccer social accounts have reshared my photo in the last couple of days.
The recent wave of virality has pushed me to order a shirt with my own photo on it, just for fun. I also bought an extra one, just in case I ever get to meet Messi, so I can hand it to him and remind him that he is just my shadow.