Has Drake Cursed Messi? Rapper’s $1.5m World Cup Final Bet — And What England Fans Make of It

Drake has placed a $1.5m bet on Argentina to beat Spain in the 2026 World Cup final, and Argentine supporters are not celebrating. The Canadian rapper’s public backing comes with baggage: the so-called Drake curse, the widely shared belief that any athlete or team he publicly bets on ends up losing. Lionel Messi, the defending world champion, now carries that superstition into the biggest match in football. For England fans watching from home after their own campaign ended, it is an irresistible sideshow.

Drake’s $1.5m stake on Argentina explained

Drake has publicly confirmed a $1.5m wager on Argentina to beat Spain in the 2026 World Cup final. It ranks among the largest celebrity bets ever made public on a single football match.

The rapper has turned betting into content. He routinely posts his slips on social media, which means every pick becomes a global story hours before kick-off.

The side effect is well documented. The team he backs picks up an extra layer of scrutiny — and in a World Cup final, scrutiny was already at maximum.

What the Drake curse actually is

The Drake curse is the popular belief that athletes and teams publicly supported by the rapper go on to lose. It began in North American sport before spreading to boxing, mixed martial arts and football.

There is no statistical evidence behind it. What exists is selection bias: losing bets go viral, winning bets barely register. A torn seven-figure slip travels the internet; a cashed one does not.

Football has always run on superstition anyway — lucky shirts, dressing-room rituals, the order players walk out in. The Drake curse is simply that instinct rebuilt for the social media era.

The view from England

With England out of the tournament, English supporters approach this final as neutrals — though rarely quiet ones. Spain against Argentina offers a contrast of footballing cultures that English fans know intimately from the Premier League.

Many of the players on show are familiar names to English audiences through European competition, and Spain’s possession-based approach has long shaped coaching debates in England.

There is also a familiar emotional undercurrent. England’s supporters know better than most what it means to carry the weight of expectation into a knockout match, which makes the psychological framing of this final — curse and all — land differently on this side of the Atlantic.

Can outside noise reach Messi?

Lionel Messi has spent his career under a level of pressure few footballers have experienced. A world champion in 2022 and a multiple Ballon d’Or winner, he answered every question about his international record long ago.

Argentina’s squad has maintained the same message since the 2021 Copa América: what happens outside the pitch stays outside the dressing room. That collective mentality explains a long run of tight matches they have managed to win.

The genuine threat, then, is not a superstition. It is a Spain side comfortable holding the ball for long spells and squeezing the midfield. This final will be settled by pressing, transitions and set pieces — not by a betting slip.

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