MANCHESTER City, an English football team, has claimed that her forward, Julian Alvarez, is the only player to wear the World Champion badge at both club and international level.
The club made the claim via her X handle on December 28, in celebration of her triumph against Brazilian club, Fluminense, at the Fifa Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia.
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Alvarez scored twice as the team won the Fifa Club World Cup for the first time by beating Brazilians Fluminense 4-0 on Friday, December 22, the BBC reported.
This makes it their fifth trophy in 2023 after winning Premier League, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League and European Super Cup.
The win granted the Argentine Alvarez who had earlier won World Cup with his country an honour to wear the World Champion Badge for both his club and country.
The post (archived here) reads, “ @julianalvarezzz, the only player to wear the World Champion badge at both club and international level! 👏🇦🇷”
It has garnered over 700,000 views, more than 3,400 reposts and more than 33,000 likes as of Sunday, December 31, 2023.
CLAIM
Julian Alvarez is the only player to wear the World Champion Badge for both club and country.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE.
The FIFA World Champions Badge is awarded to each winning team at a major FIFA event. The design of the badge consists of the respective tournament trophy and the tournament edition. The first national team to ever receive the badge was the Italy men’s national team for their victory at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
The badge is a kit emblem in the shape of a gold and white shield, awarded by FIFA to the reigning world champions of FIFA competitions, both at national team level (e.g. World Cup, Women’s World Cup, Futsal World Cup and FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup) and at club team level such as Fifa Club World Cup. It’s licensed by FIFA and it badge bears the inscription “FIFA World Champions.”
The first club to receive the badge was the Italian giants AC Milan, after winning the Fifa Club World Cup in 2007.
Checks show that before Alvarez, Manchester United defender Raphael Varane has achieved this feat after helping France to win their second World Cup and Real Madrid to their 13th Champions League title and Fifa Club World Cup in 2018.
This made Varane a recipient of the prestigious badge on his club and national team shirts before Julian Alvarez.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Manchester City and Argentina forward, Julian Alvarez, is the only player to wear World Champion badges for both club and country is FALSE; findings show that Manchester United defender, Raphael Varane achieved the feat before Alvarez.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
