Did This "Time Traveler" Just Predict the Winner of the 2026 World Cup?
"Well, FIFA wrote the script 5 years ago."
Published July 15 2026, 11:37 a.m. ET
The day was July 11, 2021. A tweet was published on Twitter (now known as X) that simply read, "Argentina just beat Spain at the 2026 World Cup final, 3-2."
At the time, it did not get any traction, and it definitely did not go viral.
However, fast forward five years, and it looks like that prediction is about to come true.
Argentina is one win away (at the time of this writing) from getting to the 2026 World Cup Finals against Spain — which beat France in an upset to get to the championship game.
Now, the question is, who made this prediction?
A "time traveler" predicted a Spain and Argentina World Cup final in 2021.
As expected, soccer fans are freaking out about the five-year-old tweet, seeing how it may come true on July __, 2026, the day of the 2026 World Cup final.
Currently, the tweet has over 50K retweets and 170K likes.
"Well, FIFA wrote the script 5 years ago," one person wrote before another added, "No surprises bro, the script got leaked years ago."
However, many just see the tweet as another conspiracy theory going viral on the Internet.
"Conspiracy theories, few days ago we heard Simpsons predicted Portugal winning the world cup 2026," one person responded. Another pointed out that there are several tweets predicting the same outcome, adding, "This now looks too much of a coincidence."
A third chimed in, "This has been done many times. Also in 2014. You tweet via an Excel 1000 different outcomes and then delete the wrong ones. A defective clock is also right twice a day..."
Sigh, ruining all the fun.
Who is the alleged "time traveler" who made the World Cup winner prediction?
The alleged time traveler joined Twitter in 2017 and goes by the handle @actuallyimthe with a profile photo of Stitch.
Not much is known about the person behind the social media account, which seems dedicated to gaming content.
He wouldn't be the first to make a 2026 World Cup prediction. As mentioned above, in a 1997 episode titled "The Cartridge Family," The Simpsons seemingly predicted that Mexico would face Portugal for the championship.
However, both Mexico and Portugal were eliminated in the Round of 16 by England and Spain, respectively.
Others are pointing to the now iconic photo of Argentinian legend Lionel Messi bathing a then 6-month-old Lamine Yamal, who is on the Spanish World Cup as a prediction as well.
Now only time will tell if this 2021 Twitter prediction comes true.