Messi gets face-saving Kazan mural to match Ronaldo's

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Kazan artists worked through the night on Friday painting a mural of Argentina’s Lionel Messi to match one of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo on a building opposite, saving the blushes of the World Cup host city.

The three-story portrait of Ronaldo was painted on a building behind the Ramada Hotel to welcome the five-time World Player of the Year when Portugal played in the capital of Tatarstan in the 2017 Confederations Cup.

June 29, 2018: A street artist paints a mural depicting Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi by the Ramada Kazan City Center Hotel where the Argentina national team stayed ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Round of 16 match against France. /VCG Photo

To the embarrassment of city officials, it turned out that Argentina would be staying at the same hotel ahead of Saturday’s World Cup Round of 16 clash against France with Messi potentially being able to see the Ronaldo mural from his room.

To avoid the appearance of taking sides in the eternal debate over which of the Spain-based forwards is the world’s best player, the city commissioned the smaller side profile of Messi.

June 29, 2018: A mural of Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, painted in a courtyard in front of the Ramada hotel where the Argentina team stayed before their Round of 16 match versus France. /VCG Photo

Not that they were above trying to foster a bit of competition between the pair, with pictures taken from the hotel revealing the sentence “I scored 4 goals. Can you beat that. Leo?” newly-painted above the Ronaldo portrait.

Fans were already gathering outside the hotel hours before the arrival of Messi, also a five-time World Player of the Year, and his compatriots.

A mural signed by "Supernovanet" shows a portrait of Argentina's forward Lionel Messi on the wall of a building in Kazan on June 30, 2018, during the Russia 2018 World Cup football tournament. /VCG Photo

Ronaldo scored a hat-trick in Portugal’s opening group game against Spain and added another goal in their match against Morocco, while Messi got off the mark in the 2-0 win over Nigeria that secured Argentina’s place in the knockout stages.

(Cover photo: Murals depicting Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo (L) and Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi by Ramada Kazan City Center Hotel where the Argentina national team stayed ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Round of 16 match against France, June 29, 2018. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): Reuters