Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
A humanoid robot stuns French football star Kylian Mbappe with a goal during a training session.
Fact
Video made by digitally altering a clip of a Belgian football content creator when he met Mbappe in May 2022.
Several social media users are circulating a video of what appears to be a humanoid robot scoring an impressive goal during a football training session, stunning French star Kylian Mbappe, who celebrates with the robot, which also pulled off Mbappe’s trademark celebration.
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Fact Check
Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “Mbappe robot”, which did not throw up any credible news reports of such an encounter, raising our doubts.
A further search led us to a Youtube video, dated June 5, 2022, uploaded by OussiFooty, a football content creator from Belgium , titled, “I left Mbappe speechless”. According to the description, “Recently, I [OussiFooty] flew to Qatar to challenge today’s PSG superstars: Kylian Mbappé, Neymar JR, Gianluigi Donnarumma & Nuno Mendes! Besides challenging ALL these players, I had the amazing opportunity to wander around in the beautiful country of Qatar. I can’t wait for the 2022 World Cup to kick off in this amazing country!”
A comparison of the two videos, especially Mbappe’s reaction and the text on the screen, indicates that the Youtube short has been digitally altered by overlaying a CGI humanoid robot onto OussiFooty. A similar “VFX breakdown”, done by TikTok video creator @laserprodai, who does AI edits, confirms that the viral video was altered.
Newshecker had earlier debunked a similar video, finding that a table tennis rally between two players was digitally manipulated to make it look like a humanoid robot is playing.
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Conclusion
A video of a content creator scoring a goal, leaving French and PSG football star Kylian Mbappe impressed, has been digitally altered to make it look like a humanoid robot performed the feat.
Result: Altered media
Sources
Image analysis
Youtube video, OussiFooty, June 5, 2022
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
