The Famously Bad Statue Of Cristiano Ronaldo At A Portuguese Airport Has Gotten A Makeover

Imagine being one of the greatest soccer players to ever live, learn that native country is going to name a goddamn airport after you, peel yourself off your mega-yacht to attend the re-naming ceremony, and get smacked in the face with a commemorative statue that looks like this:

Last March, Ronaldo had to paint a plastic smile on his face while Portuguese officials unveiled that god awful bronze bust of the Real Madrid star at the newly minted Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport in civil parish of Santa Cruz (formerly Madeira International Airport).

The statue got brutalized online with tweets like this:

That’s how you treat a man who just days ago completed a hat trick in the first round of the World Cup for Portugal.

Sculptor Emanuel Santos said his work was just “a matter of taste,” and told Bleacher Report that the mockery of his work upset his family and made him feel isolated. Shit, now I feed like a dick.

“It is impossible to please the Greeks and Trojans. Neither did Jesus please everyone,” Santos said.

But Ronaldo’s own family deemed the bust under-par and made the request for the replacement through the CR7 Museum,  Madeira Island News reports. Santos even said he spoke with Ronaldo about the bust, who he claims was pleased, but had a few notes.

“He only asked for some wrinkles to be changed, that give him a certain expression in his face when he’s about to laugh.

“He said it made him look older and asked for it to be thinned out a bit to make it smoother and more jovial. But they gave it the go-ahead before they liked what they saw.”

After getting a crack at redemption, Santos said his plan was to create a bust of the country’s most famous citizen displaying a “more serious” expression.

The new and improved statue was revealed the same day Cristiano scored a hat trick against Spain in the World Cup.

How does Santos’ new version compare to the statue was designed by Jose Antonio Navarro Arteaga that was unveiled months back at the Real Madrid Museum?

[h/t BBC]