Lionel Messi has had a new sculpture built and fans think he's won statue battle with Cristiano Ronaldo

Lionel Messi has had a new sculpture created to mark Argentina's historic World Cup win.

The 36-year-old won the Golden Ball after scoring seven times, including twice in the final. And his incredible achievement has been commemorated with a life-size statue.

And unlike many other busts, Messi's actually bares a striking resemblance to the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner. Messi was all smiles as he saw the sculpture for the first time and posed next to it.

It will be based at the South American Football Federation (CONMEBOL) headquarters in Peru alongside statues of late greats Diego Maradona and Pele.

Messi was overjoyed at being honoured with the statue and thanked the federation and God for delivering another blessing.

"I'm fulfilled with this; it was what I was missing," he said at the ceremony.

"Thank God I got everything in football. I keep these cups in the museum at home. Thanks to CONMEBOL for this tribute to us and to Sole for the song, we listen to it a lot and it reminds me of when she sang it to Diego. We are living very beautiful moments, we were lucky to return to Argentina after the World Cup and we received many expressions of affection. It was different, that's how the people of Argentina show it."

It led to plenty of trolling, with Emanuel Santos, the man who made it, being widely ridiculed across the board.

Reacting to the two sculptures, one fan wrote: "Messi’s statue has touched more World Cups than human Ronaldo."

Another said: “Whoever designed the Ronaldo statue was definitely a Messi fan.”

A third user chimed in: "Only Ronaldo had a World Cup they would have paid more attention to sculpting his statue.”