As Argentina charges through the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the national passion for captain Lionel Messi has been immortalized in two massive, fan-driven projects that have captured the country’s collective heart: a record-breaking 26-meter statue in a remote Patagonian town and a community-built mural signed by more than 1,300 devotees.
The towering steel monument stands on the outskirts of Cutral Co, a small oil-producing Patagonian town that has long lived in the shadow of the region’s more scenic, tourist-focused lake and mountain communities. Weighing 70 tons and built to withstand the region’s ferocious gale-force winds, the statue was inaugurated on June 16, matching the date of Argentina’s 2026 World Cup opening match against Algeria—where Messi delivered a standout performance, scoring a hat-trick to seal a win for his side and extend his historic international career.
The work replicates one of the most iconic moments in Argentine soccer history: Messi’s emotional kneeling celebration on the pitch at Lusail Stadium after Gonzalo Montiel converted the decisive penalty to secure Argentina’s 2022 World Cup title over France in a dramatic penalty shootout. The statue captures all the details of that moment: the 2022 World Cup trophy rests between his knees, while one hand grips the Albiceleste jersey, and the index finger of the other points to the sky—Messi’s famous goal celebration, a tribute to his late grandmother who supported his early soccer career. The raised arm also doubles as a warm greeting to motorists passing along the adjacent Route 22.
Its creator, 61-year-old local sculptor Aldo Beroisa, is no stranger to large-scale public art, having previously built giant dinosaur sculptures and monuments to Argentine independence heroes in Cutral Co. Beroisa called the Messi project a deeply personal honor, noting “He is Argentina’s natural ambassador. For me, it was very important, not only as an artist but as an Argentine.” Local officials confirm the monument is the largest statue ever built in honor of the Argentine captain, who will turn 39 just days after the statue’s unveiling.
For the once-overlooked town, the statue has already delivered an unexpected boost: foot traffic has surged, with soccer fans and Messi admirers traveling from across the country to visit the monument, even as Messi continues to make history on the 2026 World Cup pitch. Just days before this report, the captain notched two goals in a 2-0 win over Austria, breaking the all-time record for most goals scored in World Cup tournament history, pushing his total to 18 since his World Cup debut in 2006. The statue project took 18 months to complete from initial concept to final unveiling.
Hundreds of kilometers north in the Buenos Aires suburb of Berazategui, a second community-driven tribute has also drawn national attention. The 6-meter-wide, 5.5-meter-tall hyperrealistic mural bears a smiling portrait of Messi, with the names of more than 1,300 fans woven into the artwork surrounding the face of the captain. Unlike the statue, the mural was a collective project from its start: 32-year-old creator Leonel García led the painting, but fans traveled from across the region to add their own names to the work, completing the piece in just 18 days. García collaborated with Federico Merodo, who owns the local parking lot that provided the blank canvas wall for the project.
The portrait draws inspiration from a relaxed, joyful photo of Messi taken during a friendly match after the 2022 World Cup victory, capturing the athlete at his most approachable. Creating a hyperrealistic likeness of one of the most recognizable people on the planet presented a major creative challenge for the team, but the final result earned high praise even from Messi himself, who shared a video message for the creators saying, “Crazy … thank you very much to all of you, to the people who supported it, who came by, and who keep coming by.”
García emphasized that the mural is as much a tribute to the unifying power Messi holds for Argentina as it is to the athlete himself. “Messi brings joy to the country. The times we’re living through in Argentina may not be very good for some people, but Messi unites everyone … and the mural does that too, because people from everywhere come together here, from every social class and every political sector,” García explained.
As Argentina advances in the 2026 World Cup, both tributes stand as lasting testaments to the decades of joy and national unity Messi has brought to his home country.