Ronaldo Honoured With Statue In India

Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo has had a statue of him erected in India.

The statue of the Portuguese weighs around 410 kg and was installed in Calangute, Goa. It was originally meant to be erected three years ago but was delayed due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is said that the Ronaldo statue was erected to inspire the youth and take football to next level in the state and country, India.

Goa’s minister Michael Lobo shared snaps of the statue on his Twitter account.

He wrote: “For the love of football and at the request of our youth we put up Cristiano Ronaldo’s statue in the park to inspire our youngsters to take football to greater heights.

“It was an honour to inaugurate the beautification of open space, landscaping, garden with foundation and walkway.”

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He also told ANI: “This is for the first time that the statue of Cristiano Ronaldo has come up in India. This is nothing but to inspire our youth.

“If you want to take football to another level then this is what young boys and girls will look forward to, taking selfies and looking at the statue and getting inspired to play.”

The minister however revealed that there was opposition to the erection of the statue but labelled the critics as football haters.

There are some people who have opposed the installation of the statue and I think they are staunch football haters. They don’t consider football as a religion.

“Football is a game where everyone is equal, irrespective of caste, colour, religion, etc. Still these people are opposing it with black flags. I can’t say anything about them and just want to bow down to them,” the minister said.

Amongst the critics of the statue is Calangute constituency forum president Premanand Divkar who believes local footballers should have been honoured instead.

“There are so many great footballers from Calangute like Bruno Coutinho and Yolanda D’Souza, who have brought laurels to India by playing football at international level.

“Why couldn’t their statues be installed? They are from Calangute. Why the Portuguese footballer’s statue has been installed.”

The statue reportedly cost Rs 12 lakhs (approximately 16,000 dollars) to erect.

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