Lionel Messi’s giant statue in India deemed a safety hazard

India’s tribute to soccer legend Lionel Messi is now set to be put away. Last year in Dec. 2025, Lionel Messi, alongside Luis Suárez and Rodrigo De Paul, made his way to India for the much-awaited G.O.A.T. India Tour.

However, despite a rough start to his tour, Messi ended his time in India on a positive note. Although chaos erupted and a disturbance occurred at the renowned Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, also known as the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, on his inaugural day, Messi received a heartfelt gift from Kolkata and the then-governing West Bengal government.

The soccer giant was literally gifted with a 70ft giant statue of himself in the Lake Town area of Kolkata. However, now just a few months after that, the  70ft statue of Messi is set to be taken down after it was spotted swaying in the wind.

According to local media and reported by BBC, engineers from the Public Works Department (PWD) inspected the statue following complaints from local residents on Monday, May. 25, 2026. Following inspection, the statue’s structural integrity was found to be severely compromised, and its immediate removal and relocation were ordered. “The statue of the Argentine football legend was found [to be] unsafe,” said one of West Bengal state’s legislators, Sharadwat Mukherjee. “We have noticed that the statue is swaying in the wind.”

Offered as a tribute to the 2022 FIFA World Cup-winning captain, the statue, made using fibreglass and an iron structure, has reportedly been secured with heavy-duty nylon ropes. Barricades have also been erected to keep people and traffic clear of the site. Also, based on recent reports, authorities are currently considering alternate locations for the statue.

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