Lionel Messi received a hero's welcome when he touched down in India overnight to embark on a special, weekendlong tour of the country.
As part of the so-called "GOAT Tour," the 38-year-old is visiting Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi over the course of three days, accompanied by two old friends in the shape of former Barcelona teammate Luis Suárez and Rodrigo De Paul, who played alongside Messi in Argentina's World Cup winning side of 2022.
The first stop was Kolkata, where Messi -- who is fresh from captaining Inter Miami to a historic MLS Cup triumph -- traveled to the Sree Bhumi Sporting Club in Lake Town in order to take part in a meet-and-greet session before unveiling a gigantic new statue that has been installed in the district.
Messi last visited Kolkata in 2010, when Argentina mustered a narrow 1-0 win over Venezuela in the first ever international friendly fixture to be staged in India. While he didn't score the decisive goal, the mercurial maestro obviously made enough of an impression to inspire a statue to be placed in the city in his honor.
Thought to be the tallest statue ever created of a footballer, the effigy is approximately 70 feet tall and features Messi hoisting the World Cup trophy aloft. It also reportedly took a dedicated crew some 27 days to install in situ.
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As we've seen countless times before, having a statue produced in your honor can be a mixed bag for footballers. Depending on the vision and skill of the artist, it can be either a life-affirming blessing or a hideous curse.
It's basically a 50-50 call up until the point the velvet cloth gets removed, as the following examples duly attest.
THE BEST
Manchester United's Trinity
Put simply, United's tribute to three of their greatest players -- Sir Bobby Charlton, George Best, and Denis Law -- is the perfect example of how football statues should be done. It is so iconic that it is even included in the Lego version of Old Trafford.
Bill Shankly
The outstretched arms of Shankly, the manager who won three league titles at Anfield and laid the foundations for the club's glorious modern history, are a familiar sight greeting all Liverpool fans making their way into the Kop end.
Lionel Messi
Argentina and Barcelona captain Messi was honored with a rather good depiction of him waltzing past defenders on the prestigious Paseo de la Gloria ("Walk of Glory") in Buenos Aires.
The statue took pride of place until vandals managed to steal the entire top half just six months later.
Lionel Messi (again)
A mammoth statue of Messi was placed in the center of Kolkata in India, where the Argentinian first played with his national side in a friendly against Venezuela back in 2010. The enormous gold-tinged sculpture stands at 70 feet tall (around 64 feet taller than the man himself).
While not the most accurate likeness, we have to award bonus points for the inclusion of Messi's GOAT-ee beard and the attention to detail on the World Cup trophy (including the green Malachite bands on the base) is certainly impressive.
David Beckham
LA Galaxy did well to capture the renowned handsomeness of their former star when the bronze Becks was installed in Legends Plaza outside the Dignity Health Sports Park.
Dennis Bergkamp
Arsenal have an array of statues outside their stadium, with Thierry Henry, Tony Adams and Herbert Chapman all dotted around the forecourt.
However, we have a particular soft spot for the Bergkamp bronze if only because the depiction of a famous aerophobe leaping through the air is amusingly ironic.
Eusebio
Benfica have a beautifully elegant bronze of legendary striker Eusebio outside the Estadio da Luz, paying humble tribute to one of Portugal's most enduring heroes.
David Silva, Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero
Manchester City went sparkly with three statues made from thousands of welded pieces of galvanized steel to honor three club legends.
Silva and Kompany saw theirs created by artist Andy Scott first, before Aguero's was added later.
Bobby Moore
Moore is the only England captain to have lifted a World Cup so it's only right that his statue outside Wembley is a thing of dignity and prestige.
Ashton's World Cup winners
Three players have statues in the English town of Ashton-under-Lyne: England's 1966 hat trick hero Sir Geoff Hurst, his international teammate Jimmy Armfield and -- rather oddly -- Italy's 2006 World Cup winner Simone Perrotta.
This is because Perrotta was born and spent the first five years of his life in Ashton before moving to Italy and beginning his football career, which was enough to earn him a nod from Tameside Council in 2010.
Perrotta had absolutely no idea about his statue until he was finally alerted about its existence by his uncle, who still lived in the town, seven years later.
Tom Finney splash
In order to re-create the iconic image of England legend Finney sliding through a huge puddle during a game in 1956, the National Football Museum ingeniously incorporated a fountain into their statue.
Something tells us the striker affectionately known as "The Preston Plumber" would approve.
Vicente Aparacio
When lifelong Valencia fan Vicente Aparacio died in 2017, the Spanish club decided to reward his years of loyalty by installing a lovely permanent memorial in his favorite vantage point: seat 164, row 15 in the Tribuna Central stand at the Mestalla stadium.
THE WORST
Cristiano Ronaldo
OK, let's just address it now, because we're all thinking about it. Quite simply, the most bewilderingly bad attempt at capturing any human being's essential likeness in the history of bronze casting. This bust, unveiled outside the Madeira airport that bears Ronaldo's name, has since been replaced with a better but blander version.
Diego Maradona
The sculptor of this work in Kolkata, India, appears to have used a photograph of Bobby Ewing from "Dallas" as his reference, rather than El Diego.
Luis Suarez
Located outside an office supply store on an unassuming street corner in the Uruguayan city of Salto, this dumpy statue of hometown boy Suarez is made all the more amusing by the fact that it's slightly smaller than life-size.
Mohamed Salah
Once you see Todd Flanders, you can't unsee Todd Flanders.
Andres Iniesta
The people of Albacete were understandably concerned when it was proposed that a naked statue of their most famous footballing son was soon to go on display there.
Thankfully, they were relieved to discover that the troubling images were of an early mock-up and a tiny pair of shorts had been added to the final statue.
Ronaldo
Located at Nike's headquarters in Oregon, it is still yet to be explained why the artist responsible for this large statue of Brazil great Ronaldo saw fit to use somebody else's face entirely.
Radamel Falcao
Back in 2018, Falcao was the recipient of a 19-foot tall salute from his hometown in Colombia.
However, it soon became apparent that the people of Santa Marta have completely forgotten what the superstar striker looks like since he's been gone.
George Best
Pat Jennings did his best to look enthused while unveiling this tribute to his former Northern Ireland teammate outside Windsor Park in 2019.
Alas, the features which made Best football's first global heartthrob in the 1960s were unsuccessfully recreated in statue form.
Michael Essien
The streets of Kumasi in Ghana have been adorned with some truly bizarre statues in recent years, with the same artist responsible for producing this pair of strange angular, cyborg-like homages to former Chelsea midfielder Essien and his Black Stars international teammate, Asamoah Gyan.
Ted Bates
Quite possibly the most infamous statue in football, Southampton unveiled this poorly proportioned homage to their former player, manager, director and club president back in 2007.
Unfortunately, it drew so much scorn from fans that the Saints eventually had to pay double to have it replaced the following year.
