Fact Check: Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona passes away; American pop singer Madonna is still alive
Diego Maradona, the Argentine soccer great who scored the "Hand of God" goal in 1986 has died. He was 60. He led his....
By Satya Priya BN Published on 27 Nov 2020 8:27 AM GMT
Diego Maradona, the Argentine soccer great who scored the "Hand of God" goal in 1986 has died. He was 60. He led his country to 1986 World Cup title before falling to cocaine use and obesity.
He has been buried in a private ceremony. Emotional scenes were witnessed in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.
Few users shared the messages mistaking Maradona as American Pop Singer Madonna. RIP Madonna was trending on Twitter.
A screenshot of a tweet that is said to be made by Donald Trump also went viral, in which he seems to be confused between Argentinean Footballer Maradona and American Pop Singer Madonna. The tweet states that "Very sad to hear about the death of Maradona. A great person. Her music was wonderful. I remember listening to her albums in the early 1980s. Rest in Peace."
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Fact Check:
The claim that Donald Trump offered a tribute to Madonna confusing her to Maradona is FALSE. American Pop Singer Madonna is still alive. Argentinean Footballer Diego Maradona died of a Heart Attack.
Diego Maradona, one of the greatest football players, was buried on November 26, 2020, in Buenos Aires, amid a global outpouring of grief. Maradona's coffin - draped in Argentina's national flag and football shirt, bearing his trademark number 10 on the back - was on public display at the presidential palace before the funeral.
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The news about the death of Maradona was mistaken by some of the fans worldwide leading to confusion and RIP Madonna hashtag.
When observed carefully, the screenshot of the tweet shared as that of Donald Trump, we found several discrepancies proving that it is a morphed tweet. The time and date stamp are missing, Twitter Handle is also missing. The font is different from the original twitter font.
The way terms 'Retweet', 'Quote tweets' and 'Likes' are displayed is also different in the viral tweet.
When Newsmeter searched for this tweet on the original account of Donald Trump, we did not find any tweet relating to Maradona. Even after the death of Maradona was announced, Trump did not tweet anything about him. His tweets continued to concentrate on USA election results.
India Today also fact-checked this claim
American Pop singer Madonna is still alive. Argentinean Footballer Diego Maradona has been confused with Madonna leading to "RIP Madonna" hashtag. The claim that Donald Trump paid tribute to Madonna in his tweet instead of Maradona is FALSE.
