A remarkable 70-foot tall statue of Lionel Messi has been built in Kolkata to mark his princely three-day tour of India.
The iron behemoth is the largest statue of any footballer in the world and is around 13 times taller than Messi himself.
And the Argentina legend is in town to visit the new landmark, which took 40 days to construct, in a special unveiling ceremony on Saturday.
The statue is situated in Lake Town, South Dum Dum, near the Kolkata Time Zone Tower – a one-third sized replica of London’s Big Ben.
Fans are full of anticipation ahead of the official unveiling on Saturday, which will see Messi visit alongside fellow Argentinian stars Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul.
There is also going to be a ‘Hola Messi’ fan zone featuring an eight-foot tall of him sat on a throne, as well as a recreation of his Miami home starring mannequins of the forward and his family.
It is part of a three-day ‘GOAT’ (Greatest of all Time) tour of the country during which Messi is expected to meet Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and attend a fashion show.
One newspaper, Aajkaal, claimed that ‘the whole of India is shaking with Messi fever’. Messi was last in India in 2011, when Argentina beat Venezuela 1-0 in a friendly. A reported 2,000 police will be deployed for his return to Kolkata.
‘Almost all the shops are selling Argentina jerseys with most having Messi written on the back,’ Mohammad Sabir, a vendor, told the Times of India.
Fans with deep pockets will also reportedly have the chance to have a handshake and a group photo with Messi if they are able to summon the equivalent of £6,122.
According to the newspaper Bartaman Patrika, there is a plan to surprise Messi with some Bengali clothes. One can only hope Messi isn’t a regular reader of that outlet, otherwise that surprise has been ruined.
He will be served a special Bengali dish featuring hilsa, shrimp, potato and postor.
His tour will also take in the cities of Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi.
Getting the statue in place was a monumental task. ‘We needed a crane as well as a trolley truck to haul it along the narrow alley,’ sculptor Monti Paul told Indian outlet The Telegraph.
‘The face alone took me 15 days to get.’
There’s just one problem: the resemblance is patchy.
‘This doesn’t even look like Messi at all,’ said one fan on X.
‘Why does he look like [Cristiano] Ronaldo,’ another said.
Another simply asked: ‘Who the f*** is that?’
