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70ft Lionel Messi statue taken down due to safety fears months after unveiling
A 70ft Lionel Messi statue erected in India has been taken down just months later due to safety concerns. In December 2025, the giant monument was installed in Kolkata, West Bengal during the footballer’s Greatest of All Time (GOAT) tour of the country. However, it has since been removed after engineers from the Public Works Department (PWD) discovered its structural integrity had been severely compromised after locals complained of seeing it move in bad weather. "The statue of the Argentine football legend was found [to be] unsafe," said West Bengal state legislator Sharadwat Mukherjee. “We have noticed that the statue is swaying in the wind.”
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