Argentine club unveils 'Creation of Adam' fresco featuring Leo Messi | OneFootball

Football is sometimes compared to religion but Club Sportivo Pereyra took that one step further.

Now, on the ceiling of their indoor facility in Buenos Aires, is a painting modelled after Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel, Maradona is God, extending his hand to Adam, Lionel Messi.

In this version of Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam,” instead of the angels surrounding God, other football stars are featured including Juan Riquelme, Gabriel Batistuta, Mario Kempes, Sergio Agüero, Claudio Caniggia, Ricardo Bochini and Ariel Ortega.

“It’s as if Maradona had bestowed upon Messi the gift of continued good football,” explained one of the artists, Santiago Barbeito.

What inspired the painting? Coach Ricardo Elsegood’s answer was less than climatic.

“We realised the ceiling was rather dark. We thought at first of painting it blue with white clouds. But one day, the artist came and said it would be better to do it with Messi and Maradona,” he said.