Messi's 70-Foot Indian Statue Comes Crashing Down—Politics and Wind Don't Mix

Sometimes a statue is just a statue. And sometimes it’s a 21-metre golden monument to a football legend that becomes collateral damage in a political power shift. Welcome to Kolkata, where Lionel Messi’s World Cup celebration got taken down faster than a defender who didn’t see the No. 10 coming.

The sculpture—a gleaming depiction of the 38-year-old Argentina and Inter Miami star lifting the trophy—came down Monday afternoon after local residents complained it was swaying dangerously in the wind. Hydraulic cranes and ropes did the heavy lifting, and the statue was hauled away on an open-top flatbed truck. State lawmaker Sharadwat Mukherjee confirmed the removal, noting it would be stored in a government warehouse while authorities figure out where, if anywhere, it belongs next.

But here’s where it gets interesting: the statue didn’t fall because of poor engineering alone. It fell because West Bengal’s political landscape just shifted dramatically. The gold-coloured tribute to Messi was unveiled in December during his much-publicised GOAT tour of India under the patronage of former chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee. Last month, however, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party swept into power, and suddenly that statue became an eyesore. The new BJP sports minister Nisith Pramanik publicly called it unsightly—and within weeks, safety concerns conveniently surfaced.

The irony is almost too perfect. India, a nation of 1.4 billion people and a cricket powerhouse, has historically struggled on the global football stage, ranking 142nd in the FIFA rankings. Yet football is the country’s second-favourite sport according to recent research by Nielsen, and Messi’s presence clearly resonated enough to inspire a 70-foot monument. What the statue represents—India’s embrace of global football culture and a moment of optimism around the sport—now sits in limbo, a victim of changing winds both literal and political.

Whether the statue ever goes back up is anybody’s guess. But one thing’s clear: in Indian politics, even Lionel Messi’s golden touch isn’t immune to the breeze.