New Delhi: Five months after the installation of a 70-foot Lionel Messi statue in Kolkata, the West Bengal government is set to take it down due to safety concerns.
On 25 May, Kolkata residents complained to the Public Works Department (PWD) that the statue was swaying in the wind. PWD officials rushed to the site to inspect the statue and decided that it must be taken down.
“When we received complaints from people we sent our team to the spot for an inspection. We do not want there to be any mishap in the future. Before that we are planning to move it (the statue),” a PWD official told ThePrint.
The golden statue, constructed by fans as a tribute to the football legend, showed Messi raising the 2022 FIFA World Cup trophy.
For now, the statue has been secured with heavy-duty nylon ropes and barricades have been erected to keep people and traffic clear of the site.
Messi’s GOAT Tour
The football legend has a massive, cult-like following in Kolkata often referred to as the Messi Mania. The city’s deep passion for football is visible through dedicated fan zones with monumental installations, fan-built tributes, and massive murals.
Messi’s statue, built over 27 days, was unveiled during his GOAT Tour of India last December. The tour itself descended into chaos when fans began throwing bottles and attempted to break through stadium gates when Messi decided to leave the venue early.
Now that Kolkata authorities are looking for a new location for the statue, people’s responses on X are varied, with some saying the statue doesn’t even look like Messi.
“That’s not even Messi…that’s just some random Indian dude holding a world cup,” reads one of the comments.
(Edited by Janaki Pande)