Buenos Aires, Argentina - A Buenos Aires statue of Barcelona and Argentina star Lionel Messi has been vandalized, with the head, torso and arms all being removed - leaving only the legs and a soccer ball on display.
All that remains of the bronze Lionel Messi statue on the Paseo de la Gloria in Beunos Aires are the legs and ball. Photo: EPA/Rodrigo Garcia
The bronze statue was installed in late June, just shortly after Argentina and Messi lost the final of the Copa America against Chile. The city government says it is working to reconstruct the statue.
Messi did not attend Fifa's annual awards in Zurich, Switzerland on Monday evening, instead staying Spain to prepare for Barcelona's Copa del Ray last 16 second leg clash against Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday as Cristiano Ronaldo was named The Best Player Men's Player of 2016.
The Messi statue is among several others in the area, all of them dedicated to Argentine sports stars. They include a figure of basketball player Manu Ginobili, tennis players Gabriela Sabatini and Guillermo Vilas, Formula One champion Juan Manuel Fangio, and hockey player Luciana Aymar.
Vandals also stole the racket from Sabatini's statue. The motives for the vandalism are not yet known. Argentine newspaper La Nacion shared another picture of the defaced statue on Twitter:
Destrozaron la estatua de Lionel Messi que había sido inaugurada en junio en el Paseo de la Gloria https://t.co/OCTqXBDpUb pic.twitter.com/NRBg6fjHfh
— LA NACION (@LANACION) January 10, 2017