It’s nice of Cristiano to unveil my statue
Lovenkrands jokes over airport tribute
FORMER Rangers star Peter Lovenkrands has joined the debate over a bizarre new Cristiano Ronaldo sculpture – and joked that it looks like him.
The Dane took to Twitter to comment on the bronze bust of the Portuguese striker. It looks little like Ronaldo and has sparked worldwide ridicule.
Lovenkrands told his 88,000 followers: “Can’t believe I got my own statue at the Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport #VeryHonoured.”
The Ibrox hero offered his mocking thanks after a fan tweeted a photo of Lovenkrands and the odd-looking bust to highlight the similarities.
His followers showed their approval.
Jodie McNair tweeted: “Wow uncanny... they may as well just change the name now and go with it!”
Real Madrid hero Ronaldo, 32, was at Funchal airport – on his home island of Madeira – on Wednesday as it was renamed in his honour and the statue was unveiled.
But he was upstaged by the bust and bemused Twitter users quickly identified some lookalikes. BBC host Dan Walker said: “When you send the statue guy a picture of Niall Quinn instead of Cristiano Ronaldo #Awkward.”
Other comparisons included Sloth from The Goonies, Bowser from the Super Mario Brothers film and Bez from the Happy Mondays.
Yesterday, self-taught sculptor and former airport cleaner Emanuel Santos, 40, from Madeira, defended his work, which took him just 15 days to complete.
He said: “You can’t please everyone.”
Santos claimed it had been given the thumbs-up by Ronaldo, who he said asked for only small changes before the unveiling.