India intends to remove a huge statue of the legend Messi

A huge statue of Argentine football legend Lionel Messi, which was placed in India to commemorate his visit last year, will be removed after it was found to be “swaying in the wind,” according to a local official.
Workers were seen climbing the 21-meter-high golden statue in Calcutta, West Bengal, where they wrapped ropes around its shoulders to stabilize it.
The statue, which shows the American Inter Miami and Argentine national team star lifting the World Cup, was unveiled during Messi’s tour of India, known as the “Greatest Tour” last December.
But a member of the Legislative Council in West Bengal, Sharadwat Mukherjee, confirmed that the statue is no longer safe.
He told Agence France-Presse: “West Bengal government engineers considered the statue of the Argentine football legend in Calcutta to be unsafe.”
He added, “We noticed that the statue was swaying in the wind.”
On Wednesday, workers used ropes in an attempt to stabilize the statue, which overlooks a busy road in the city.
Mukherjee indicated that the date for removing the statue has not yet been determined, explaining: “Removing it is not as easy as we thought. We plan to remove it as soon as possible.”
He did not clarify whether the statue would be moved to another location and re-erected.
The Argentine national team is scheduled to begin its 2026 World Cup campaign against Algeria on June 16 in Kansas City.
Although Messi has not officially confirmed his participation in the tournament, it is widely expected that he will play in the World Cup finals for the sixth time in his career, equaling the record for the number of participations.
The Argentine star is still considered the main pillar of his country’s national team in defending the title it won in Qatar four years ago.
Although India, with a population of 1.4 billion people, is a major power in cricket, it suffers in football, as it ranks 142nd in the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) rankings.
However, football remains the second most popular sport in the country, according to a study published by Nielsen on Wednesday.