The World’s Tallest Messi Statue Is Also Its Most Salacious
Featuring a crotch-level and rather phallic World Cup trophy, the Patagonian artist Aldo Beroisa’s 85-foot-tall sculpture immediately caused a stir online.
From Kolkata to Patagonia, the likeness of Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi continues to be bastardized on a monumental scale, as evidenced by the recent unveiling of the tallest statue honoring the decorated athlete in the city of Cutral Có.
Valiantly contributing to the global phenomenon of truly unfortunate commemorative statues, the 85-foot-tall (~26-meter) rendition of the athlete kneeling behind a World Cup trophy went viral for its unintentional lewdness after it was installed earlier this month.
Self-taught Patagonian sculptor Aldo Beroisa's design placed the somewhat phallic trophy right in front of Messi's crotch, which lent itself to accidentally provocative imagery. Taken from in front of and behind the sculpture, the lascivious photos positioning Messi as both the plunderer and the plundered drew in thousands of commenters who couldn't believe what they saw — and couldn't unsee — in the news and online.
Jokes poured in immediately, ranging from “One Messi One Cup” to the very earnest “why he bouncin on it.”
Hundreds wondered why the Messi statue couldn't have held up the trophy in his hands, but Beroisa told the New York Times that he was concerned about the structural integrity, as the work was comprised of 70 tons of steel and concrete. The statue in Cutral Có was erected (😏) only weeks after an earlier monument to Messi, which was the tallest then at 70 feet (~21 meters), had to be dismantled after only six months in Kolkata, India, after the structure was deemed unsafe due to its swaying in the wind.
The Kolkata Messi was skewered online for its awkward proportions and general unlikeness to the soccer star after it debuted last December — such complaints apparently haven't been resolved in Cutral Có, either. Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and Miami Heat's all-star player Dwyane Wade have also been dinged by unflattering commemorative sculptures and busts in recent years, indicating that this is a widespread issue.
Unfortunately, Martin Luther King Jr. and Tina Turner haven't dodged the phenomenon either.
As always, fund the arts!
