Internet Desk: A monument to Barcelona soccer star Lionel Messi in the Argentine capital has lost its head – in fact, its entire torso – in an apparent act of vandalism, Buenos Aires city officials on Tuesday. Much to the dismay of Lionel Messi’s fans who first had to concede the FIFA title to Cristiano Ronaldo, they now have to deal with a severed statue of the Barcelona star. A statue of Lionel Messi erected at Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires has been destroyed by vandals.
The statue was unveiled in 2016 by city mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta at the Rio de la Plata as part of a ‘Glory Walkway’ honoring Argentine sport stars. The fibre glass and resin statue depicted Messi mid-run, dribbling a football on his left foot.
“The statue of Lionel Messi fell victim to an act of vandalism that left the footballer’s sculpture without its top half,” the Buenos Aires city government said.
Not a good day for Leo Messi. No-show and 2nd place at the Fifa #TheBest awards, and his statue vandalised in Buenos Aires pic.twitter.com/Rh0rSKWzfE
— Onefootball EN (@OnefootballEN) January 9, 2017
The statue had been erected by the government to try and convince Messi to step back on his decision of international retirement after the shocking defeat in the Copa America finale.
However, the government has decided that they will repair the statue back to its original form. It is not yet clear that whether this is the fallout of loosing the FIFA award to Christiano Ronaldo by Messi.
The Best FIFA awards were voted for by the national team captain, manager, and a journalist, and fans registered on FIFA.com from each of 211 nations — each group holding 25 percent of electoral weight — for a player’s performances from Nov. 20, 2015 to Nov. 22, 2016.
Ronaldo earned 34.54 percent of total votes while Lio finished second with 26.42 percent and Griezmann was third at 7.53 percent.
Ronaldo scored 61 goals and registered 20 assists in 60 games for club and country during voting period (48 goals in 47 games for Real Madrid; 13 in 13 games for Portugal), while Messi netted 59 goals, 34 assists in 64 games (51 goals in 53 games for Barcelona; eight in 11 games for Argentina) and lost in the Copa America final to Chile.