Fake images circulate of Spanish World Cup players draped in Palestinian flags

An image of Spanish footballer Lamine Yamal grinning widely with the World Cup tucked under his arm and a Palestinian flag draped over his shoulders has garnered millions of views on social media. It turns out, however, that the image is a fake. 

The image, first posted the night after Spain won the 2026 FIFA World Cup, has been picked up and shared by a wide variety of accounts. Just one X post featuring the image – a post by Palestinian journalist Mohamed Al Masri – had garnered more than 1.9 million views by late afternoon on July 20.

The photo has also circulated widely on Facebook. 

An image generated with the help of ChatGPT

However, this image of Yamal was created using ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot owned by the company OpenAI. SynthID, Google’s tool to identify AI-generated content, was able to detect that the image contains a hidden watermark showing that it was generated by “OpenAI’s tools”, i.e. ChatGPT.

SynthID was originally created to detect images generated using Nano Banana, Google’s AI image generator. Now, it can also detect images generated by ChatGPT. To check an image, you just upload it to OpenAI’s verification site.

The AI-generated image was made using a real photo of Lamine Yamal originally published by Spanish newspaper El País in their live feed covering the World Cup final. You can see that his smile is the same, as is his grasp on the World Cup trophy. His headband is the same, too.

Another video captures the exact moment when Yamal struck this pose with the trophy. 

Lamine Yamal’s real support for the Palestinian cause 

While the image that has been circulating online was created using artificial intelligence, Lamine Yamal does actually support the Palestinian cause. His position on the matter has stirred some controversy. 

On May 11, players from FC Barcelona – Yamal’s club – were riding on an open-top bus through the streets of the city as part of a parade celebrating their La Liga championship win against their rival, Real Madrid. 

As the bus moved through the overjoyed crowd, someone held up a Palestinian flag to Yamal. Yamal took it and then waved it over his head. 

The video immediately stirred up controversy on social media, with some commending the player’s position, while others condemned him. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Yamal of “inciting hatred towards Israel and the Jewish people”. 

For his part, the young football star posted an image on social media of himself holding the flag, a post that seems to indicate he stands by the gesture.

Pedro Porro: another Spanish player falsely accused of wearing a Palestinian flag  

Several social media posts that garnered tens of thousands of views claimed that Spanish player Pedro Porro was also decked out in a Palestinian flag while celebrating the team’s World Cup win.

Images show Porro receiving his medal with a green, black and white flag tied around his waist. At first glance, it does look a bit like the Palestinian flag. 

In reality, the player was wearing a flag from his home region: the autonomous community of Extremadura, located in western Spain. The player has shown his love for the region on multiple occasions and spoken about his regional identity.  

It appears that instead of wearing a Palestinian flag, Pedro Porro was just showing some hometown pride. 

This article has been translated from the original in French by Brenna Daldorph.