Corinthians restored its official websites on Saturday after a cyberattack inserted a fake Lionel Messi signing announcement, and the Brazilian club said no financial losses or data leaks were found.

Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, the São Paulo football club known as Corinthians, said its official website was hit during the early hours of Saturday, October 31. The hacked page carried a false announcement saying Messi would join the club in 2027.

False transfer details appeared on the club’s own site

The Argentine forward currently plays for Inter Miami, and the fabricated post went beyond a simple headline. It described a supposed transfer operation and included a fictional statement attributed to Messi, while one account of the incident said the page also showed an image of him in a Corinthians shirt.

The false announcement was presented as if it had come from the club itself, giving the transfer claim an official appearance before Corinthians removed the content and began security checks. The club did not identify who carried out the attack or say how the website was breached.

Club says it contained the attack and brought the sites back

Corinthians said its technology team identified the attack and neutralized it. As a precaution, the club temporarily took both its main website and the official site for the Neo Química Arena, its stadium in São Paulo, offline while it worked on security measures.

The club said the intrusion did not lead to financial losses and did not compromise its data or information. It said it was monitoring its systems and strengthening digital protections before returning the sites to public access later on Saturday.

The false transfer story appeared on the club’s own digital platform. The remaining unknowns are who was behind the cyberattack and whether any systems beyond the websites were affected.