Messi statue in Patagonia sparks NSFW controversy

Argentina unveiled an 85-foot Lionel Messi statue in Cutral Có, but online backlash quickly followed after its pose and World Cup trophy placement made the sculpture appear suggestive. The towering artwork, weighing about 60 tons and designed to echo Messi’s 2

Argentina’s Lionel Messi has barely returned to the international spotlight, and yet the loudest headlines are not about football.

In the small Patagonian town of Cutral Có, an 85-foot statue of the Argentine star was unveiled as Messi also steps back into the run-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup and turns 39. The scale is undeniable: the sculpture took about 18 months to craft and weighs around 60 tons.

What caught people’s attention, though, wasn’t just the size. The statue was built to mirror Messi’s iconic pose during his 2022 World Cup victory over France—kneeling with one hand to his chest and holding his jersey, while the other hand is raised triumphantly.

That pose. paired with the way the artwork was finished. has led many viewers to interpret the sculpture as effectively “suggestive.” The statue uses blue paint for Argentina’s jersey. while the rest of the sculpture was left white. For some online observers, the result looked like the figure was wide-legged and not wearing pants. To intensify the reaction. the sculpture also includes a copy of the World Cup trophy placed directly between Messi’s legs.

Images spread quickly across social media, and the comments arrived fast. One user on X wrote, “We need to talk about the position of that trophy…”. Another added. “he looks he isn’t wearing any pants at all.” Others questioned whether the placement was intentional. with one person writing. “I’m guessing they knew what they were doing with the placement of that ‘throphy’ on person added.”.

The backlash also brought a new detail into the story: the statue may not be finished as some people first saw it. The Associated Press reported that the designer of the sculpture is Aldo Beroisa. In an Instagram post from an account that appears to be Beroisa’s. an edited caption said the work is unfinished. The caption reads: “Due to the limited time with which the work was requested we worked tirelessly day and night to present the statue on the scheduled date. However, its completion with all the details was not possible within the time frame.”.

The uproar fits a pattern of major public statue mishaps involving Messi.

In 2017, a Messi statue in Buenos Aires was vandalized, with the statue decapitated and left behind without limbs. More recently, a 70-foot Messi statue in Kolkata, India, was taken down because of safety concerns related to wind. Even with those setbacks behind him. the new Cutral Có artwork has reignited the same debate—whether it’s a simple mistake of design and timing. or something more.

And some viewers don’t stop at Messi. They bring up earlier problems with other football monuments, including a 2017 Cristiano Ronaldo statue that went viral after being inaugurated at an airport named after him in Madeira, Portugal. That work was widely criticized.

Now, as the internet argues over the Cutral Có statue’s pose and the World Cup trophy’s placement, some commenters are already comparing them. One X user wrote, “Finally, Messi has his counterpart to Ronaldo’s statue.”

For now, the 85-foot sculpture stands at the center of the conversation—an enormous tribute to a world-famous moment, but one that has made its way online for reasons no one at an unveiling wanted to carry for long.

Lionel Messi statue Cutral Có Patagonia 2026 FIFA World Cup Aldo Beroisa Argentina viral statue World Cup trophy placement social media backlash Cristiano Ronaldo statue public art vandalism