Messi invited to immortalize feet on Maracanã Walk of Fame
Argentine football star Lionel Messi—who led Argentina’s national team to their third World Cup title Sunday (Dec. 18) in Qatar—will be invited to have his feet immortalized on the Walk of Fame of Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã stadium.
On its Instagram account Monday (19), the Superintendence of Sports of Rio de Janeiro State (Suderj) announced the reiteration of the invitation to the Argentine striker in a statement to be sent to the Argentine Football Federation. The first invite for the striker to imprint his feet at the stadium came in 2019, when Messi and the Argentine team won the Copa América in Brazil.
“Lionel Messi has demonstrated on and off the field how important he is. As a player, he has been at the highest level of football history for years. This World Cup victory is only the crowning achievement of a beautiful and victorious career. It is therefore only fair that the Maracanã should be paying this tribute to him. After all, Messi is a ball genius,” said Suderj chair Adriano Santos.
Maracanã’s Walk of Fame has the imprints of Brazilian football idols—Pelé, Garrincha, Rivelino, and Ronaldo Fenômeno, among others—and a select group of seven stars from overseas: Elias Figueroa (Chile), Alcides Ghiggia (Uruguay), Romerito (Paraguay), Petckovic (Serbia), Eusébio (Portugal), Loco Abreu (Uruguay), and Franz Beckenbaueer (Germany).
