A fleeting joy and a sad ending! Messi joins a Brazilian club in a stunning surprise

What's the story?

Hackers broke into the official website of Brazilian club Corinthians and published a fake statement announcing the signing of Argentine star Lionel Messi, the Inter Miami player, from 2027 in a stunt that stunned the club's supporters.

The fabricated statement laid out details of the supposed transfer, complete with remarks attributed to Messi expressing his delight at the chance to play in Brazilian football. The hackers even invented financial figures to explain how Corinthians could afford to land the former Barcelona star, despite the enormous cost.

It didn't stay up for long. Those running the site raced to delete the post the moment they spotted the breach, replacing it with a notice that the platform was undergoing maintenance. By then, plenty of fans had already been caught out by the news.

In an official statement, Corinthians confirmed a cyberattack on its platforms and said the information technology team had contained the breach quickly. No financial losses were recorded, and none of the organisation's data or private information was leaked.

As a precaution, the club decided to tighten the security protocols on its digital platforms. It took its official website and the site of its stadium, the Neo Quimica Arena, offline temporarily for the necessary technical checks, before restarting both later.

Timing made it sting. The breach landed just hours after Corinthians' 2-0 win over Mirassol in the thirty-third round of the Brazilian league, a result that wasn't enough to haul the team out of the relegation zone. They remain among the bottom four in the table.

This wasn't the first attack of its kind between the two football giants of Sao Paulo. The official website of Palmeiras, Corinthians' historic rival, suffered a similar cyberattack only days earlier.