Patagonian desert unveils giant Messi statue as World Cup starts

Local artists unveiled a 26-meter, 85-foot Lionel Messi statue in Cutral Co, a remote oil-producing town in Neuquén province in Argentine Patagonia, as Argentina opened its World Cup campaign on June 16. Built from 70 tons of steel and iron over 18 months, the monument was presented as the largest ever dedicated to Argentina's captain.

The sculpture shows Messi kneeling after Argentina's 2022 World Cup final win over France at Lusail Stadium. The World Cup trophy sits between his legs, one arm is raised in greeting and his index finger points skyward in tribute to his late grandmother, a detail sculptor Aldo Beroisa said mattered to him as both an artist and an Argentine. Beroisa is 61.

Cutral Co has drawn more visitors since the statue went up, and the monument has become one of the most talked-about symbols of the 2026 tournament in Argentina. Its timing was deliberate. Messi entered the World Cup having broken Miroslav Klose's all-time scoring record and reaching 18 career World Cup goals, and he turned 39 on June 25, days after the statue's inauguration. In a country where Messi remains both a sporting standard and a national shorthand for belonging, the monument places that identity in a town far from Buenos Aires, where the local economy still depends on oil and the hope that a global icon can pull attention toward the desert.

The statue also landed in the middle of a wider wave of Messi devotion. In Berazategui, in the Buenos Aires suburbs, a mural signed by more than 1,300 fans added to the same surge of public tribute. Another giant Messi statue in Kolkata, India, was later removed after authorities deemed it unsafe and said it was swaying in the wind, a reminder of how far the Argentine captain's image now travels and how quickly the desire to immortalize him can outpace the structures built to hold that admiration.