Chellanam, a village near Kochi, celebrates Messi with a 25-foot cutout ahead of the FIFA World Cup

A 25-foot cutout of Argentine soccer legend Lionel Messi at Chellanam | Photo credit: THULASI KAKKAT

Have you seen the viral photo of the 25-foot cut-out of Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi put up by fans at Chellanam in Kochi? Placing a Messi cutout is now something of a FIFA World Cup tradition in Chellanam. “Every season (World Cup) Messi cuts out without a hitch and they are created from scratch by the local fans,” says Thomas Mayjo, an All India Football Federation certified coach and a native of Chellanam.

Although football fans all over Kerala pasted up cutouts of their favorite players, this one in Chellanam attracted the most attention.

In 2018, a 35-foot-tall cutout of the Argentine star by another Chellanam-based club, the Argentinian fans of Chellanam received a football signed by their hero. This video was uploaded to Messi’s website which caught the attention of his team and the rest is the stuff of dreams.

This year, the cutout is a modest 25 feet high and was built by the young members of the City Bazaar Football Club. “The guys put a lot of effort to ‘up’ this cutout. From idea to realization, it was almost a month’s work,” says Mayjo, who was also the goalkeeper for India’s 2019 Homeless World Cup team and an employee of the Fourth Wave Foundation’s Venda project. Usually by the time the FIFA World Cup starts, cutouts have been in place, but this year there wasn’t much going on at first. That’s when the young men put their heads together and decided to do it.

“They raised funds through donations and crowdfunding, worked together as a team to create the cutout. These guys are basically the next generation to build it. Every four years a new group of kids shows up – it’s almost like a ritual!” Mayjo says. It wasn’t all youngsters, even older people contributed to the increase in cleavage.

“The guys did all the welding and stuff to get the cut out on the metal frame. They helped figure out how to attach it to the frame and make it stay in place, as well as cutting the flex in that shape,” he adds. The final act of placement was work for three days.

He says there is another story to how the cutout was put together. “The boys worked on it and put it together on the grounds where one of the boys’ houses once stood. The sea took their house!” For context, a little background on Chellanam, which is a coastal village near Kochi, is prone to flooding (also during high tide) and sea erosion.

This year’s tournament is extra special and bittersweet as it could be the last time Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) and Neymar Junior (Brazil) play at the World Cup. “These three footballers have been looked up to by several generations, it won’t be the same next time. There will be other names, but it won’t be the same.”

Although the majority are fans of Argentina, there are supporters of other countries such as Brazil. Like Mayjo who says she loves sports and ‘supports’ Brazil. He has an explanation for why Neymar: “He is an inspiration to young people because of how he came back after every setback and will play this year. It is a lesson for young people to persevere and not give up. And for that reason, he deserves a special place.”

Published – 12 Jun 2026 13:13 IST