The year started off great for Cristiano Ronaldo compared to his rival Lionel Messi. Ronaldo won the FIFA Best Player Award while Messi's statue in Buenos Aires was cut in half. Both events happened on Monday, January 9.
FIFA named Ronaldo the best player in the world after winning the Champions League with Real Madrid and the European Championship with Portugal last year. Ronaldo got a total of 34.54 percent compared to Messi, who only received a total of 26.42 percent of the total votes, per BBC.
And to make matters worse for the Argentinean forward, his statue in Buenos Aires was vandalized. According to ESPN, the Messi statue that is placed on the city's Paseo de la Gloria was found cut in half on Monday.
"The statue of Lionel Messi fell victim to an act of vandalism that left the footballer's sculpture without its top half," the City Government of Buenos Aires said in a statement.
Messi's statue was the only one vandalized in the park since San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili's and tennis legend Gabriela Sabatini's statues were left clean. The statue was installed last June 2016 in the middle of his "retirement" from the national team.
It should be noted that Ronaldo's statue in his hometown of Madeira, Portugal also got vandalized in 2014, per The Independent. The 11-foot Ronaldo statue was defaced with red paint and the words Messi and 10 written on the back.
The vandalism on Ronaldo's statue in 2014 also happened on the same night Messi won the FIFA Ballon d'Or Award. Is it just a coincidence or Ronaldo's fans were waiting for the right opportunity to get their revenge?
Messi's statue is already being repaired by the city government and they are investigating the act of vandalism. In the meantime, Messi is preparing for Barcelona's big game against Athletic Bilbao while Ronaldo and Madrid will face Sevilla, both second legs of the Copa Del Rey Round of 16.
