The graffiti was put on the statue overnight on Tuesday, just hours after Barcelona's Argentine star Messi claimed a fifth world player of the year award, beating out Real Madrid's Portuguese striker and three-time Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldo in the process.
https://twitter.com/nicolas_vilas/status/686953370066751489
The name Messi and the number 10, both scrawled in red, had already been cleaned off the statue, the Diario de Noticias da Madeira said.
Move over Ronaldo, Messi back on top of the world
"It's a shameful act committed out of jealousy towards him," said Ronaldo's sister Katia Aveiro, with pictures of the tagged statue predictably doing the rounds on social media.
Ronaldo unveiled the 3.40-metre-high bronze effigy of himself in December 2014 on the Funchal seafront, a few hundred metres from his own self-financed museum.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ