Lionel Messi Rocks $500 Shirt that Sparked Chinese Outrage

This little piggy … is putting Lionel Messi in the middle of a huge controversy involving Dolce & Gabbana and the country of China!!!!

The soccer superstar was rocking a $500 Dolce & Gabbana t-shirt Friday as he touched down in Barcelona for some vacation time with his family … but he might not know that his shirt has some Chinese people very upset.

Long story short … D&G got in major hot water in China in Nov. 2018 for an ad campaign featuring a Chinese model bungling an attempt to eat Italian food with chopsticks.

The campaign was almost immediately deemed offensive by the masses in China and D&G pulled it from Chinese social media in 24 hours. People were pissed and Dolce and Gabbana issued a video apology.

There’s more … Stefano Gabbana appeared to trash China in social media posts — using the poop emoji to describe the country. He later claimed his account was hacked. But most people weren’t buying the excuse.

Fast forward to Feb. 2019 … when D&G releases new shirts celebrating the “Year of the Pig” in Chinese culture.

After the previous controversy, there was renewed outrage from Chinese consumers over the pig shirts … with some people feeling the designs were offensive. One site explained Chinese consumers felt the designs depicted Chinese people as “pigs with money.” Multiple fashion outlets (see here and here) covered the situation.