In 1998, Gică Hagi asked for a statue to be made for him and his colleagues from the Golden Generation, but this has not happened even to this day. Conversely, others have two or more sculptures, even if some of them they hate, being quite unsuccessful.
“What Iordănescu says is normal! We play for Romania! I worked for money. Don’t squint, with a mustache, yes, don’t squint! Stick with the national team! I used you badly for 10 years. What conditions do we have, we don’t have any football. What performances are there in Romania? We are seeded at the World Cup. Don’t underestimate us! We play football well. We deserve to make us a statue! What are the conditions in Romania, you have to make us a statue. We do our job well. In 3 years, our football is gone. The results are with us“.
This summer marks 28 years since these words, spoken at a press conference in which Gică Hagi, the leader of the tricolors, blamed the journalists for the fact that the supporters from Ghencea whistled the players Bogdan Stelea and Cristian Dulca. On June 3, 1998, the Romanian national team, already qualified for the World Championship in France, beat Paraguay 3-2 in a friendly. After the match, Hagi had an intervention like a prophecy. From then until now, our national team has not qualified for any final tournament of the World Championship. And Hagi and his colleagues, who played their retirement match in May 2024, don’t even have a statue now. To have the statue equals the definitive entry into the legend. All great footballers have at least one. The subject was reopened by Lionel Messi’s recent visit to India. The superstar was honored with a 21-meter high monument. In the world it is estimated that there are more than 400 hundred sculptures dedicated by artists to footballers around the world. Between history and legend, the world press reviewed the most representative ones.
Among the Romanians, Rodion Cămătaru, former player for the Dutch team Heerenven, has a dedicated statue in front of the arena, as a sign of gratitude. In 1970, the Mexicans wanted to erect a statue to Emerich Dembrovschi, declared the best Romanian player at that final tournament. He was part of the group of 16 players proposed to have their statue erected on the “Football Alley”, in front of the “Azteca” stadium in Ciudad de Mexico.
Mircea Lucescu
The coach Mircea Lucescu turned 80 years old last year, on which occasion he received a surprise from Ukraine. His former club, Shakhtar Donetsk, sent home the statue of him sitting on a bench. The sculpture was made 11 years ago and initially stood in the park near the stadium of the team that Lucescu coached with great success between 2004-2016. Then, in 2020, after Lucescu signed with the great rival, Dinamo Kiev, the “miners” decided to store the statue at a training base, so that it would not be vandalized by fans angry with the Romanian coach. The object that arrived in Romania was not placed in public, being in the possession of Matei, the nephew of “Il Luce” and patron of a brewery in Bucharest, having the production line in the halls of the old Grivița factory.
Lionel Messi
Another record for Leo Messi is his statue in Calcutta, the tallest in the world at 21 meters. The monument was inaugurated during the Argentinean’s India tour and completed in just 40 days. It is located near the “Salt Lake” stadium in Calcutta. Despite its record-breaking size, the inauguration was not the happiest. A few hours after the unveiling, fans defaced it, angry that Messi refused to play a scheduled friendly during his tour of India. The annoyance of having spent 100 dollars on an entrance ticket, without being able to admire the one who won the “Golden Ball” eight times (absolute record), was reflected and left traces on the work.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Just as Borobudur, the world’s largest Buddhist temple, was built to honor Siddhartha, the municipality of Funchal, in the Madeira archipelago, was transformed to pay homage to its most famous citizen: Cristiano Ronaldo. The statues are just a small part of a journey that also includes a custom museum as well as an airport named after him. Nearby, the artist Emanuel Santos dedicated a famous half-length portrait of the Portuguese champion. The work, not entirely realistic, was criticized by CR7’s entourage, who requested its replacement a year later. But by then, the damage was already done, so much so that it was one of the most talked about works of art on social media in 2017, much to the delight of Messi fans.
Diego Maradona
Diego Armando Maradona is the real king of statues, especially in his two countries: Argentina and Naples. The most striking is undoubtedly the one located on the slopes of Nevado Ojos del Salado, the highest volcano on Earth (dormant for over 300 years), whose three peaks rise to almost 7,000 meters. It is located in Santiago del Estero, Argentina’s oldest city, founded in 1553, which is home to one of the country’s most modern stadiums, the “Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades”. The tallest statue of Armando Maradona in the world was erected here. It is a five-meter bronze statue depicting “El Pibe” wearing the shirt of Argentina in the 1986 World Cup, the edition with the “Hand of God” and the most beautiful goal in history. The statue was inaugurated in 2021, before the 1-1 draw between Argentina and Chile in the World Cup qualifiers. Who scored for Argentina? Even Messi, as in a real relay handover.
Pele
“Before the match, I said to myself: he is made of flesh and blood, like everyone else. At the final whistle, I realized I had made a mistake!“. It is one of the quotes that best describes Pelé and it is authored by Tarcisio Burgnich, the Italy defender who scored him in the final in Mexico in 1970. It is a mythological image, just like one of the sculptures dedicated to “O Rei”, the “China-Brazil Friendship” statue, donated by Beijing to the city of Rio de Janeiro as an official gift, on the occasion of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. It thus marked the 30th anniversary of twinning between Beijing and Rio. The sculpture, created by artist Huang Jian, depicts two prominent figures from the two countries: Emperor Han Wu, who inaugurated the Silk Road and (according to legend) invented football, and Brazil’s Pelé, two men separated by 2,000 years of history and united by a ball. They hit the balloon simultaneously.
Marco Materazzi – Zinedine Zidane
Also related to the World Cup, the “Header” cannot be forgotten, which depicts Zinedine Zidane’s famous nervous outburst at the Italian Marco Materazzi during the 2006 final. Created by the Algerian sculptor Abdel Abdessemed, the work was seen worldwide thanks to Renzo Piano, who chose it for the inauguration of the “Centre Pompidou” in Paris. The most famous “header” in history thus became the most imposing, having a height of five meters. The work caused considerable controversy, as it was considered an act glorifying unsportsmanlike conduct and therefore unsuitable for public display, particularly in France. So much so that it was shipped to Qatar just over a year later, but to no avail. Days after its installation in the Corniche, Doha’s main bay, the work received harsh criticism from residents for being unethical and was moved. It then reappeared at the 2022 World Cup.
Carlos Valderrama
The son of a maths teacher who played soccer in his youth, Carlos Valderrama was one of the symbols of Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s, with his iconic yellow “bigoli” (man with long hair) earning him the nickname “Gullit the Blond.” He won so much love among Colombians that he was honored with a statue 9.5 meters high and weighing 7 tons, located in Santa Marta, in front of the small local stadium. Made entirely of bronze, with his hair styled like fusilli, Valderrama, whom the tricolors have beaten at the World Cup twice (1994 and 1998), is portrayed in a dynamic pose, as if he is about to execute a feint to leapfrog yet another opponent in his career. However, this very detail has drawn attention in the wrong way. Local criminals have repeatedly targeted the statue, “cutting” the metal hair to resell the precious copper it was made of.
Bobby Moore
The chant “It’s coming home” rang out from the chests of the English when the World Cup arrived in the United Kingdom. The performance was celebrated with a statue, “Champions”. The opera celebrates England’s iconic victory in the 1966 World Cup final, Albion’s only trophy at a World Cup. The sculpture reproduces one of the most famous images in world football, captured in a photo taken after the final played at the old “Wembley” stadium. In the center is captain Bobby Moore, shouldered by teammates Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and Ray Wilson, as he displays the Jules Rimet Trophy to a cheering crowd. A tribute to a team that combined talent, team spirit and determination, leaving an indelible mark on football history and fueling, even today, the dream of truly bringing the Cup home. In England there is a fashion for statues. Frenchmen Arsene Wenger and Thierry Henry have statues at Arsenal London, and Argentinian Sergio Aguero – at Manchester City.
Simone Perrotta
Not only top footballers have statues. After Italy’s WC 2006 epic, of all the stars of that formidable team (Buffon, Cannavaro, Pirlo, Totti, Del Piero), only one Azzurri player boasts a dedicated statue: “reserve” Simone Perrotta. But the surprise is where it is: not in Italy, but in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester. Here Simone Perrotta was born and raised until the age of five, before returning to Calabria hand in hand with his parents. The English city wanted to pay tribute to Simone by placing him in an iconic monument alongside two legends of English football, also born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Sir Geoff Hurst and Jimmy Armfield (winners of the 1966 World Cup). Perrotta was not aware of the initiative. “I found out about it thanks to my uncle who still lives there, then I went to see it with my kids“, he commented amused.
