Confectioners make life-size chocolate sculpture of Lionel Messi on his birthday

What’s the story?

Confectioners in Russia built a life-size Lionel Messi chocolate sculpture on the day of his birthday – 24th June – as a gift to the great Argentine. The Argentina captain hasn’t enjoyed a great World Cup thus far, but five workers at Moscow’s Altufeyo Confectionary decided to honour the Argentina number 10.

In case you didn’t know

Argentina are currently on the brink of elimination, as they have only one point from two games. They need to win against Nigeria, while also hoping that Iceland drop points against Croatia, in order to ensure qualification to the round of 16.

Heart of the matter

The sculpture is exactly the same height as Messi and weighs 60 kilos. Chief confectioner Daria Malkina revealed that they wanted to give Messi a proper gift for his birthday.

“We found out by chance that it was Messi’s birthday on June 24,” said chief confectioner Daria Malkina. “And we thought, ‘why not make Leo a gift, a chocolate sculpture of himself’?”

She also added that she will contact Messi’s representatives and send him the sculpture.

What’s next?

While Malkina and her colleagues did a fine job for Lionel Messi, they would also be hoping that the Argentina superstar leads the team to an emphatic win against Nigeria in their final group game.

Currently, the reigning World Cup runners-up only have one point to their name and a goal difference of minus three. However, Nigeria’s win against Iceland was their lucky turn as the goal difference doesn’t matter anymore.

All Argentina now need is to win against Nigeria and hope that Croatia hold Iceland to at least a draw, which doesn’t look much of a daunting task given how the Croats have played.

And if everything goes Argentina’s way, then the sculpture chocolate will taste a lot sweeter.