Will Messi and Ronaldo Shake Hands During World Cup?

1%sportsUpdated 2 min ago

What you need to know

This market is asking one very specific question: will Messi and Ronaldo physically shake hands — on the field or in the bench area — at any point during the 2026 FIFA World Cup? Argentina and Portugal are in different groups, so the two men would only share the same pitch if their national teams happened to meet in a knockout round match. A 'Yes' requires that exact moment, caught on camera. A 'No' simply means it never happens — whether because they never meet on the pitch, or because they do meet but no handshake occurs. The market settles 'Yes' only if a handshake between Messi and Ronaldo is visible in official match footage or confirmed by credible broadcast video, and it must happen on the pitch or bench area — not in a tunnel, locker room, or anywhere off the field. The deadline is July 20, 2026. One important edge case: if the World Cup is cancelled or significantly postponed past August 2, 2026, the market automatically resolves 'No', regardless of what might have happened. None of the recent news provided relates to this market. The headlines cover unrelated topics like trade policy, business, and tea. The development most worth watching for this market would be tournament bracket results — specifically, whether Argentina and Portugal are advancing through the knockout rounds on a path that could put them in the same match. The market is priced at just 1%, meaning participants see this as almost certain to end in 'No' — and the reasoning is straightforward. For a handshake to happen, Argentina and Portugal must first play each other, which requires both teams to advance through the same bracket and meet in the knockout stage. That's genuinely unlikely on its own. Then, even if they did meet, a formal handshake between the two would need to be captured on camera. The main uncertainty here isn't really a coin-toss — it's simply whether a very unlikely chain of events occurs.