Lionel Messi: French TV uses photo of Iranian man while reporting his story
- Lionel Messi has donated €977,000 towards efforts to contain the coronavirus
- His efforts were covered at a French TV station who made a costly error while presenting images
- The station used an image of Messi’s Iranian lookalike to cover the story
- Reza Parastesh came to the limelight for his uncanny resemblance to Lionel Messi back in 2017
A popular lookalike to Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi got an unlikely endorsement on Saturday, March 28, 2020, when his image was inadvertently used in a French TV station.
In a lunchtime segment, TV station French broadcaster M6 covered a story highlighting efforts by major athletes across the world in the fight against the coronavirus.
Messi is among those who played his part as he donated €977,000F to a Barcelona hospital to help the coronavirus cause.
But as far as covering the piece of news was concerned, the station paired a featured image of tennis star Roger Federer and the Barcelona maestro – or so they thought.
As it turns out, they had used an image of Reza Parastesh – an Iranian renowned for his uncanny looks to Messi.
The Iranian was in fact among the first people to point out the French station's erroneous ways.
Reza gained global attention a few years ago when his photos went viral and media inevitably tracked him down to prove that indeed, he was Messi’s doppleganger.
Needless to say, the Iranian has had several people mistake him for the Barcelona legend on several occasions in his home country.
In 2017, he was actually impounded and summoned to a police station for the commotion he was causing in the streets due to his strange resemblance to Messi.
Twitter users instantly went on the troll-train once they realised the TV station’s mistake , but at least they could see the funny side to it.
In their defence, the mistake was hardly noticeable as Reza literally looks like Messi in another life.
That said, it is rather grave to miss out on a photo of one of the most famous football players in the history of the game.
Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh had earlier reported that Peter Crouch is one of the most recognizable players in world football due to his lanky nature, The Sun.
But the former England international opened up on what happened when he came across Brazilian legend Ronaldo De Lima when they met in Ibiza.
The ex-Liverpool legend was on holiday in, Spain, when he saw the Real Madrid legend drinking beer alongside a supermodel.
Crouch seized the opportunity to take a selfie with the owner of La Liga side Real Valladolid and was shocked that Ronaldo did not recognize him.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
