Pauline Kana briefly pulled the broadcast away from Lionel Messi on a night when Argentina beat Austria 2-0 in Dallas. The 100-year-old American content creator, known online as Granny Smith and Gangster Granny, appeared in the stands holding a sign that read, “I’m 100 years old and I’m a Messi fan.”
It happened as Messi scored twice and became the all-time leading goalscorer in World Cup history, which gave the moment its edge: the scoreboard belonged to one man, but the camera lingered on another. Kana’s sign was simple, direct and impossible to miss, and for a few seconds it turned a historic World Cup night into a fan story about age, loyalty and timing.
Kana is not new to Messi followers. The Ohio content creator first built her online profile through comedy videos, stunts and viral sketches with her grandson, Ross Smith, with early clips dating back to Vine before the act moved on to Instagram and TikTok. During the 2025 Club World Cup, she also surfaced at Inter Miami matches, where she kept bringing the same obsession back into the frame with signs reading, “Messi, will you marry me?” and later, “Messi, I love you. Age is just a number.”
That track record explains why her appearance in Dallas resonated so quickly. She had already become familiar to some Messi fans before the World Cup broadcast moment, and she was no stranger to formal recognition either: Guinness World Records named her the oldest person to crowd surf after she reached 99 years and 274 days at a Brantley Gilbert concert in Bellville, Texas. The World Cup sign was in character for her, but the setting made it bigger.
There is still one thing the broadcast did not answer. It showed Kana in a blue and white shirt, but not how she got into position for that fleeting close-up or what precisely put her in the right place at the right time. What is clear is that the night now belongs to Messi’s record and Kana’s image alike: one for the history books, the other for the kind of viral moment that can interrupt history long enough to be remembered too.
