The World Cup trophy might well have Lionel Messi's name written on it… and so might the ball.
Messi has perhaps been the standout player in Qatar and during another spectacular performance in the semi-final against Croatia, Adidas debuted their new ball for the semi-finals and final. We've been using the Al Rihla up until now, a technicolour beast that went down well with fans – only for the final four games of the tournament (the third-place play-off, too) to bring in the Al Hilm.
And of course, Leo Messi is the German manufacturer's big star, with five of him featuring in their World Cup advert. But hang on a minute – is the little genius himself referenced on the World Cup ball?
Look a little closer. It certainly looks to the naked eye as if that triangle spells the word, "Leo", doesn't it?
The "L" is very clear to make out – it then looks like it curves into a lower case "e" before finishing with an "o". They couldn't have made a reference to a single player on the World Cup ball, could they? Were Adidas banking on Argentina getting this far?
Thankfully for the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Piers Morgan, it is in fact a coincidence.
The ball has the word "together" written on that panel in a few different languages. The primary language in Qatar is of course Arabic, where the word translates as "maean".
Naturally, this is written in Arabic script on the ball – معا. It looks like "Leo"… but it's not. Never mind, Messi. It's your tournament, it would have been greedy if the ball itself was yours, too.
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