A social media post made five years ago has become one of the internet’s biggest talking points ahead of the World Cup final after seemingly predicting not only the two finalists, but the exact scoreline.
With Spain set to face Argentina at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday, July 19, fans around the world are making their own predictions about who will lift the golden trophy. But one X, formally known as Twitter, user appears to have beaten everyone to it, predicting the results five years ago.
On July 11, 2021, X user @actuallyimthe posted a short but remarkably specific prediction that has resurfaced after both Spain and Argentina made it to the final. The post simply read: “Argentina just beat Spain at the 2026 World Cup final, 3-2.”
At the time, the tweet attracted little attention and was largely forgotten about, buried among the countless football predictions shared on the social media app every year.
However, the post suddenly gained attention this week after Spain secured their place in the final with a 2-0 victory over France before Argentina completed a dramatic 2-1 comeback win over England in Atlanta.
The prediction has already got the finalists right. Now all eyes are on whether it can also call the final score, with Argentina tipped to beat Spain 3-2.
The unlikely prediction has since gone viral, racking up more than 280,000 likes and tens of thousands of reposts as football fans struggle to explain the coincidence.
Many questioned how anyone could have predicted the exact two teams who would make it all the way into the final, especially so many years in advance. One user replied: “How did he know?,” as a second said: “How is this even possible to predict WOW!”
While another joked: “You tweeted this before World Cup 2022, who’s your source please?”
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Other users leaned into the more supernatural explanations, with one writing: “We might live in a simulation,” and another simply declared: “We legit have time travellers among us.”
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The mystery deepened further after the account, which had not posted since December 12, 2025, returned following Argentina’s semi-final victory. Rather than offering an explanation, the user simply replied to the original viral post with a single watch emoji, fuelling even more speculation online.
That cryptic response prompted another wave of reactions from social media users, with one person writing they hoped “the guy that made this tweet is still alive.”
Whether the prediction proves to be an extraordinary coincidence or simply an incredibly lucky guess will be decided on Sunday. Spain and Argentina meet at the final on Sunday with the kick-off scheduled for 8pm BST and the game will be shown on both BBC One and STV/ITV.