Viral 85-Foot Messi Statue Goes Viral For Its Unintentionally Suggestive Design

Soccer legend Lionel Messi is now honored with a massive new 85-foot statue, and while this is far from the only public monument built to celebrate the Argentine great’s historic career, it is easily the most talked-about tribute to date.

The new sculpture was unveiled in the small Patagonian town of Cutral Có, Argentina, with fittingly timed timing: it launched the same week Messi returned to international competition for the 2026 FIFA World Cup cycle, and just in time for the star’s 39th birthday on June 24.

Ranked among the largest statues ever created of the celebrated player, the monument weighs roughly 60 tons and took a full 18 months to craft. But it is not the statue’s impressive scale that has dominated global headlines—it is the controversial pose sculptors chose to replicate.

The work recreates Messi’s iconic victory celebration following Argentina’s historic 2022 World Cup final win over France: the figure is positioned on its knees, one hand clamped around the front of his jersey, and the other lifted triumphantly toward the sky.

While immortalizing this career-defining winning moment felt like a fitting choice in theory, the final execution left the larger-than-life sculpture with an unintentionally NSFW (not safe for work) appearance.

Sculptors used blue paint to render the signature stripes of Argentina’s national jersey, and black paint for Messi’s name and iconic number 10 on the back of the uniform. Because the rest of the statue is coated in plain white paint, however, it creates a striking optical illusion: the figure appears to not be wearing shorts at all.

To make the awkward visual even more unavoidable, the monument also includes a full replica of the World Cup trophy placed directly between the soccer star’s legs, leaving little room for innocent interpretation of the suggestive pose.

As soon as photos of the finished statue spread across the internet, social media users were quick to call out the sculpture’s accidentally raunchy appearance, turning the tribute into a viral global talking point within hours.