India will remove the monumental Messi statue
India plans to remove the world’s tallest statue dedicated to Lionel Messi, a 21-meter iron structure, located in the city of Calcutta, in the east of the country, after the iron mass began to sway in the wind and unleashed panic among passers-by.
“During the inspection it was discovered that the screws on the main frame had become loose, which could have caused the movement that people noticed, although the problem has since been rectified,” declared a local official to the Indian agency PTI, after neighbors notified the public works department that the facility was about to fall due to the strong wind.
The work, located in the Lake Town neighborhood, represents Messi lifting the World Cup and, according to the authors, it was completed in approximately 40 days.
A controversial tour
The inauguration took place last December, marking the beginning of the Argentine player’s visit to India, during the ‘GOAT Tour’, in which Messi toured some of the country’s main cities for three days, first Calcutta, and then Hyderabad, Bombay and New Delhi.
An event that also generated controversy due to a truncated mass event at the Salt Lake stadium in Calcutta, which had to be interrupted to evacuate the player after 22 minutes after objects were thrown from the stands.
The controversy originated inside the venue, where thousands of fans reported serious organizational problems after paying high-cost tickets and seeing how a cordon of politicians, officials and security personnel blocked the player’s visibility, which finally led to the promoter responsible for the management being arrested by the police.
The gigantic effigy of Messi was already under intense public and legal scrutiny due to doubts about its construction permits, in addition to having been mocked on social networks for its poor resemblance to the Argentine.
The structure has been secured with heavy-duty nylon ropes and barricades have been placed to keep people and traffic away from the site, pending word when it will be removed.
