Emanuel Santos
[9] The renaming ceremony was attended by Ronaldo, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and Prime Minister António Costa, among other guests and hundreds of fans.
The sculpture received a strong reaction from news outlets and on social media following its unveiling, with most commenting on the work's lack of resemblance to Ronaldo, and was intended to be on permanent display outside the airport's terminal entrance.
[15] The reportedly "bizarre" and "eccentric" event was also attended by the nation's president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and prime minister, António Costa, who unveiled a commemorative plaque together, as well as dozens of other guests and hundreds of fans.
[6] The bust received a strong reaction from news outlets and on social media following its unveiling, with commentary focused on the work's lacking resemblance to Ronaldo.
[6][7]Alan Dawson of Business Insider said the sculpture looked like a grown-up version of Alfred E. Neuman, the fictitious mascot and cover boy of the American magazine, Mad.
"[28] Hayley Jones of The Daily Beast said fans were "thrown for a loop", the sculpture's "vaguely menacing visage now sneers at passersby", and quipped, "Bronzing never ends well for anyone.
[24] The Guardian's Elle Hunt said the bust resembles Kryten from the British comedy franchise Red Dwarf, and the botched Ecce Homo restoration.
[17] Hindustan Times said the bronze has a "toothy grin and bulging eyes that instantly created a laugh on social media because of its debatable likeness".
[20] The Independent described the artwork as "amusing" and "scary", and compared its "disconcertingly lopsided grin" to "The Head" from the British children's television series Art Attack as well as Raoul Moat.
[16] Tom Doyle of London Evening Standard called the bust a "bizarre", "troll face" statue that "delighted and horrified Twitter in equal measure".
[32] Victor Mather of The New York Times described the sculpture's "goofy smirk and uneven eyes", suggested it resembled Latvian basketball player Kristaps Porziņģis, and wrote, "Most art connoisseurs out there were not impressed".
[33] Claire McCartney of the magazine Paper wrote, "despite Ronaldo's world-renowned beauty and famously symmetrical face, the statue Portugal created of him was...questionable.
[19] He called the sculpture "pretty creepy" and compared the depiction of Ronaldo to the courtroom sketch of Tom Brady,[19] which received a similar reaction in 2015.
[35][36][37] Rich McCormick of The Verge wrote, "The finished product makes the famously handsome man into something of a monster, squaring his head, shrinking his eyes, and inflating his bones to horrific levels.
"[9] McCormick also noted the many photoshopped parodies that appeared online, depicting Ronaldo as "Batman's Two-Face, Mass Effect's eerily animated main character, Han Solo frozen in carbonite, BioShock's Andrew Ryan, and as IT, the monster hiding in the sewers.
[41] The sports website published a documentary video about Santos,[42] in which he said: "The first Ronaldo bust, if I hadn't done it the way I did, it would've already been forgotten a long time ago.
"[45] ESPN's Chris Wright wrote, "The second bust is undoubtedly a lot more polished and lifelike, though it also lacks the naive charm of the wonky original.
[39] Following the 2021 installation of the statue of Diana, Princess of Wales at London's Kensington Palace, Ron McKay of The Herald said the sculpture was "nearly, but not quite" as "awful" as the bust of Ronaldo at Madeira Airport, which he said "looked more like The Head from Art Attack than the footballer".
"[47] In 2017, the Irish bookmaker Paddy Power commissioned Santos to make a bust of Ronaldo's then team-mate, the Welsh footballer Gareth Bale.
