Barcelona Star Lionel Messi Honored with $5.25 Million Golden Cast of His Foot

Barcelona star Lionel Messi has a golden foot, and I don't just mean that in a figurative sense.

The footballer with unparalleled skill on the pitch is being honored with an actual golden cast of his foot. The Telegraph reports that Japanese jeweler Ginza Tanaka went to Spain at the end of 2012 to take the cast:

Upon returning to his home country, Tanaka produced quite the spectacle:

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A pure gold replica of Barcelona football star Lionel Messi's left foot, worth £3.4 million, was unveiled in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Valued at US$5.25 million (£3.4m), the golden foot weighs 25kg and is 10 inches tall.

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Rodrigo Messi, Lionel's brother, gave a positive review of the final product: "You can see each line on the foot. Its an impressive piece of work."

"Impressive" is an understatement considering the golden foot will now yield millions of dollars on the open market. Speaking of which, anyone can try to get their left-foot fix on Thursday, when the statue goes on sale. 

Surprisingly, this is actually the second story year this year involving a famed footballer and a statue. 

A.C. Milan star Mario Balotelli was rumored to have commissioned a life-size statue in his likeness, and we all believed it, because, well, it's Mario Balotelli. Unfortunately, Yahoo! Sports reports that the Italian star is not actually commissioning any such statue. 

Thankfully, the golden foot of Messi is as real as it is spectacular.

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