A new mural in Palermo immortalizes Lionel Messi in his most glorious moment: lifting the World Cup in Qatar

The image of Lionel Messi when he raises the Qatar 2022 World Cup with his teammates from the Albiceleste has become a mural in a corner of Palermoby the street artist Massimiliano Bagnasco.

“This is my way of saying thank you. It’s a gift for the people. Football for Argentines is always a joy and it helps us overcome difficult situations better,” he told the news agency. AFP extension the 39-year-old muralist.

Bagnasco became popular when he painted Argentina’s other great fan idol, Diego Maradona, in one of the tallest murals in the world, 40 meters high in a building in Canning, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

“We see Argentina united with millions of people on the street. We are world champions”, the artist recalled the feat of victory over France in the final (4-2 on penalties, 3-3 in 120 minutes).

The new production from Bagnasco, on the corner of Gorriti and Darwin, reproduces in color Messi at the time of the award ceremony, surrounded by Paulo Dybala, Rodrigo De Paul and Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martínez.

The albiceleste captain wears the black bisht with golden details that he received at the awards ceremony, a symbol of Arab culture reserved for royal authorities and prominent personalities.

“This image with the jersey was something different from all the World Cups,” said Bagnasco.

The mural is six meters high and five meters wide and the artist used 60 aerosols.

“There are technical details in the works, but what matters is that it’s something emotional,” he said.

In late October, less than a month until the start of Qatar 2022, the artist said he cut short his trip to Russia to make the gigantic mural of Diego, the largest he has ever made. This time, at the request of a friend close to the Maradona family, who proposed to carry out this majestic work from the top of a modern building. His figure is so huge that it can be seen when planes depart from Ezeiza International Airport.

“I interrupted my trip, they had asked me from Russia to paint again but I had to interrupt it to come here and do this mural. I wanted to paint a large mural in my country. It was what I had to do with Diego”, says the artist who has portrayed him several times.

Bagnasco is already a “specialist” in portraying the most representative iconic, sporting and cultural figure in the history of the Argentines since he has been working on Diego’s “thousand and one faces” since he was very young. But his artistic side got a major boost when he played the Argentinian star on Nov. 26, 2020, the day after his death.

“One day after you left, I made this painting for you,” he posted from his @maxibagnasco account. That portrait went viral.

Thus was born the proposal to illustrate his image in the sanctuary of Maradona, under the stands of the stadium Young Argentines, in La Paternal, to immortalize his figure. Subsequently, requests “rained” to install murals of Diego of all kinds: in swimming pools, factories, offices, on the patio of a house, in parks, in apartments, even in buildings, in remote and unexpected places.

In fact, on a recent trip to Italy, Bagnasco created a mural of Maradona on a building in the Neapolitan Pompeii district. His work caused such a stir that the mayor Carmine Lo Sapio ordered that the street in which the works were carried out be called “Via Diego Armando Maradona” in honor of the Argentine star, considered “God” of Naples together with San Jenaro. patron of the city.

“I painted the Tango D10S plane, the Shrine of Maradona in Argentinos Juniors, I also painted 18 paintings and auctioned them in the Patio de Los Lecheros, but I always said that this was needed: a large mural by Diego. After that I don’t know what else I have left to play Diego”, jokes the artist, adding: “There’s always something but I like people to surprise me with their ideas”.

With information from AFP