{"id":80132,"date":"2025-12-12T11:28:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=80132"},"modified":"2025-12-12T11:28:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:28:27","slug":"messi-to-unveil-21m-statue-in-india-as-fan-fever-peaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/12\/12\/messi-to-unveil-21m-statue-in-india-as-fan-fever-peaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi to Unveil 21m Statue in India as Fan Fever Peaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Samuel Adeola<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lionel Messi will on Saturday unveil a 21-metre iron statue of himself in Kolkata as he begins a three-day India tour that has already sparked massive fan excitement.<\/p>\n<p>The statue, depicting Messi lifting the World Cup, is part of the \u201cGOAT Tour\u2019\u2019 covering four cities.<\/p>\n<p>The 38-year-old Argentina captain and Inter Miami star will unveil the monument virtually due to security concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Kolkata has created a \u201cHola Messi\u2019\u2019 fan zone featuring a life-sized throne display and a mock-up of Messi\u2019s Miami home. \u201cSeeing Messi visit India is a dream come true,\u201d said football fan Samir Nandy, adding that the statue was \u201ca fitting tribute.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lead sculptor Monty Paul told AFP the structure was completed in 40 days, describing it as \u201cthe tallest statue I have ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During his stop in Kolkata, Messi is expected to meet Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan and former cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, and play a brief friendly match.<\/p>\n<p>He will later visit Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi for another friendly, a concert in his honour, and a possible meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the visit, Messi said he looked forward to returning to India after 14 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIndia is a passionate football nation, and I am excited to meet a new generation of fans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The trip comes days after Messi won his second straight MLS Most Valuable Player award, having led Inter Miami to the league title.<\/p>\n<p>He is also expected to lead Argentina as they defend their World Cup crown next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Adeola Lionel Messi will on Saturday unveil a 21-metre iron statue of himself in Kolkata as he begins a three-day India tour that has already sparked massive fan excitement. The statue, depicting Messi lifting the World Cup, is part of the \u201cGOAT Tour\u2019\u2019 covering four cities. The 38-year-old Argentina captain and Inter Miami [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":80133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1754,175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign-news","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80134,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80132\/revisions\/80134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}