A photographer whose image of Lionel Messi became part of the most-liked Instagram post ever said it was “simple luck” that he caught the moment.
The footballer chose Shaun Botterill’s photo of him celebrating Argentina’s World Cup win as the first image in a gallery to celebrate the achievement.
The post has received more than 72 million likes and the number is rising.
Mr Botterill, 55, from Northampton, said getting the shot involved “a bit of planning but an awful lot of luck”.
Argentina defeated France on penalties in Sunday’s final in Qatar – their first World Cup triumph in 36 years.
The professional photographer, from Weston Favell, who works for Getty Images, captured the image of Messi as he sat on Sergio Aguero’s shoulders holding the World Cup trophy aloft.
He was at the final after six weeks in Qatar, and, as Getty was contracted by Fifa, he was able to be on the pitch at the end.
“There was a bit of a lull after the initial presentation,” he said.
“[Then] all of a sudden [Messi] gets up, grabs the trophy and starts walking towards the fans, and [at that point] you’ve kind of got to make a decision where to go, hoping that it’s going to come your way.
“He ducked under the goal, because they’d ripped the net out to keep as a souvenir, and he literally appeared close [to me] about one metre away.”
Mr Botterill said getting the photo was “luck, as simple as that”.
“You’ve got to get yourself in the right sort of position, but there’s always a bit of luck in the end,” he said.
“The luck was that he was right in front of me – it’s so easy to get blocked.”
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Afterwards he said he thought, “I can’t believe this just happened in front of me”.
“You kind of hope for that ‘on the shoulders’ moment,” he said.
Mr Botterill said he was not on social media himself, so he only found out about his viral image when he got off the plane in the UK.
“A colleague messaged me to say, ‘Your picture has become quite popular’,” he said. “But that didn’t mean anything to me as I’m not on Instagram.
