What happened To The Infamous Bust Of Ronaldo?

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There are perhaps few
greater honours for a football player to receive than a statue to mark
their accomplishments within the game.

The
likes of David Beckham, Bill Shankly and Sir Alex Ferguson have all
been immortalised in metal, but it was an infamous bust of Cristiano
Ronaldo in Madeira that perhaps garnered the most attention in recent
history.

Designed by Emanuel Santos, the bronze statue
netted a resoundingly negative response when it was unveiled in March
2017 as a part of a ceremony renaming Madeira’s airport to Cristiano
Ronaldo International Airport.

Many detractors felt the
sculpture did not look enough much like the then-Real Madrid star, who
attended the ceremony and had input on the design of the statue.

In
fact, some felt it looked more like former Liverpool cult hero John
Arne Riise, NBA star Kristaps Porzingis or F1 pundit David Coulthard
than Ronaldo.

Santos,
though, was seemingly not bothered by these opinions when he told Globo
Sports: “Even Jesus did not please everyone. This is a matter of taste,
it’s not as simple as it seems.”

“I used photos of
Cristiano Ronaldo that I searched on the internet as a base. I put the
photos next to me and started working on the bust.

“What
matters is the impact that this work generates. There is always the
possibility of making a difference, I was prepared for all this.”

In
March 2018, Santos created a second, more traditional version of the
bust, which was received much more kindly by the general public and was
widely accepted to be a marked improvement on the first attempt.

Despite
the reception of the original statue, which Santos said took between
two and three weeks to complete, it was set to remain at the entrance of
the airport.

However, just 15 months after it was put on
display, the bust was removed – reportedly at the request of Ronaldo’s
family through his CR7 Museum – and replaced by one created by an
anonymous Spanish sculptor.

According to Diario de Noticias
Madeira, airport director Duarte Ferreira said: “The museum asked us to
replace it and place this bust instead, in homage to the athlete, and we
thought we should do it. We have the other one stored.”

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