The towering cutout of Argentine talisman Lionel Messi, which was erected in a river in Kerala's Kozhikode district weeks before the FIFA World Cup began in Qatar, now belongs to a Brazil supporter.
On Tuesday, the locals of Pullavoor carefully uprooted the now famous installation, tied it behind a lorry and moved it to the property of Ameen.
The 30 feet Messi cutout is not the only one Ameen has acquired. The cutouts of Neymar (35ft) and Cristiano Ronaldo (50ft) that had stood next to Messi in the river, have been moved to Ameen's sports hub.
"I'll be holding them inside an auditorium where we have a swimming pool. It quite tall so we can hopefully keep it standing as it stood in the river," Ameen told Onmanorama.
Messi's was the first cutout to come up in the river, at the behest of Argentina Fans Pullavoor. The Brazil fan group, of which Ameen is a member, introduced Neymar soon after. Cristiano was the last of the trinity to join.
The cutouts, placed on scaffoldings, soon caught global attention. Even FIFA, the world football governing body, lauded the efforts of fans from the southern corner of a country that has never participated in the men's world cup.
Criticism wasn't far behind and the threat of a litigation came up as an advocate alleged a number of violations, including river pollution. But football lovers, even in the state Cabinet, rallied behind and the cutouts remained, even after Neymar's Brazil and Cristiano's Portugal bowed out in the quarterfinals, and until Messi guided Argentina to the title on December 18.
Initially, the fan groups had planned to replant the cutouts to an adjacent land where a local football tournament, Pullavoor Premier League, is hosted. But they dropped that plan to avoid further legal issues.
"We had planned a big celebration on the day after the final, but there was a death in the locality and as a mark of respect we postponed it. Today, we cut a cake and celebrated before the cutouts were taken off the water," said Nousheer Nellikkode, a member of Argentina Fans Pullavoor.
