Vishu appeared to have gone global on Wednesday (April 15, 2026).

International Association of Football Federation (FIFA) World Cup’s official Instagram account, in a nod to Kerala’s endearing love for football, surprised Keralites celebrating the first day of the Malayalam annual calendar by posting an AI-generated image of soccer legend, Lionel Messi, celebrating a goal with a platter of “Vishu Kani” in the foreground.

The Vishu Kani ritual is central to the festival, which brings the hope of auspicious new beginnings and year-long plentifulness to Malayalees across the globe.

It is essentially an aesthetic arrangement of seasonal fruits, local vegetables, rice, paddy stalks, coconuts, and sugarcane stems topped with golden-hued Kani Konna (Indian Laburnum) blossoms and flanked by lighted lamps and statuettes of Hindu gods.

The FIFA World Cup page also brightened the propitious day for Keralites by conveying the international sports body’s Vishu Greetings in Malayalam, “Vishu Ashamsakal”.

The post went super viral on social media. It earned accolades from the Kerala Tourism Department and hundreds of soccer fans, especially in Central and North Kerala, where football legends are household names, and the game is almost like oxygen for fans.

Notably, the AI image has a backstory in Kerala. The State government had announced that Argentina, Messi’s home team, would play a friendly international match to regale fans in Kochi, Kerala, in 2025. Kerala’s Sports Minister, V. Abdurahiman, had visited Spain last September and met with the Argentine Football Association’s (AFA) Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer, Leandro Peatersen, to secure the deal, sponsored by a media house in the State.

However, the Kerala government’s relationship with AFA soured in April 2026, with Mr. Abdurahiman stating that the Argentina team had let the State down by failing to honour its commitment to play in Kochi. He also said the AFA had accepted an advance payment of ₹250 crores for the event, but dishonoured the contract. Football fans in Kerala expressed their profound disappointment on social media. 

Also Read | Argentina football team ‘deceived’ Kerala by not coming to play: Sports Minister Abdurahiman

Kerala’s football fan base is deeply divided between Argentine and Brazilian loyalists. Colourful cardboard cutouts of Argentine and Brazilian footballing icons herald World Cup season in the State. Fans strut around wearing Argentine and Brazilian jerseys during the sporting season. Football clubs are as common in Kerala as libraries and reading rooms, especially in the coastal areas.

The comment section on the FIFA World Cup page also saw lighthearted sparring between the fans. Portuguese football team zealots demanded that Cristiano Ronaldo.