Ronaldo statue in Madeira tagged with Messi's name

Portuguese striker's sister Katia Aveiro says its a shameful act committed out of jealousy towards Real Madrid star

LISBON: Cristiano Ronaldo's statue in Funchal, capital of his home island of Madeira, has been tagged with the name and shirt number of arch-rival Lionel Messi, according to local press reports.

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.

La statue de #CristianoRonaldo vandalisée cette nuit à Madère (le nom de #Messi y a été peint en rouge) (photo JM) pic.twitter.com/J1AZ8MVR5R

— 𝗡𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘀 𝗩𝗶𝗹𝗮𝘀 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝘀 (@nicolas_vilas) January 12, 2016

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.



"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.