Lionel Messi's fans vandalise Cristiano Ronaldo's statue in Portugal

Lisbon: The statue of Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, has been vandalised, according to several media reports.

Vandals in Portugal painted the maverick Argentine's name on a statue of Ronaldo in Portugal on Tuesday.

Messi's shirt number was also smeared in red paint on the statue in Portugal striker's hometown.

'Messi 10' daubed on Cristiano Ronaldo statue in his native Madeira https://t.co/qrF6NPjigj pic.twitter.com/Ol4mTURlYz — AS English (@English_AS) January 12, 2016

The graffiti was put on the statue overnight on Tuesday, just hours after Barcelona`s Argentine star Messi claimed a fifth world player of the year award, beating out Real Madrid`s Portuguese striker and three-time Ballon d`Or winner Ronaldo in the process.

The name Messi and the number 10, both scrawled in red, had already been cleaned off the statue, the Diario de Noticias da Madeira said.

"It`s a shameful act committed out of jealousy towards him," said Ronaldo`s sister Katia Aveiro, with pictures of the tagged statue predictably doing the rounds on social media.

Ronaldo unveiled the 3.40-metre-high bronze effigy of himself in December 2014 on the Funchal seafront, a few hundred metres from his own self-financed museum.

(With Agency inputs)