Paddy Power hires Ronaldo sculptor to do Bale Bust

The betting company that is practically synonymous with kooky and provocative advertisements and publicity stunts have decided to bring the controversial Portuguese sculptor Emanuel Santos back into the spotlight to produce another of his bronze ‘Art’ works this time of Ronaldo’s Real Madrid co-star and Welsh Wonderboy Gareth Bale. The piece was commissioned to coincide with Saturday’s Champions League Final clash against Juventus.

A Bad First Impression

When Emanuel Santos’ statue at the Madeira airport of local hero Cristiano Ronaldo was first shown back in March a storm of criticism and mockery came flooding in due to its, let’s say abstract resemblance to its subject.

The story captured the imagination of people around the world who instantly got to work creating image macros of the bust compared to the real thing, in team photos and replacing the actual head of Ronaldo to hilarious results. All of this accumulated in the artist withdrawing somewhat from the public eye in order to shield himself from the media coverage.

Ronaldo himself seemed to be in good spirits about the whole thing and was sincerely honoured by the attempt and the reverence that the local people had for him that prompted the statue and the airport’s name change. Santos however stuck to his guns and was adamant that the work was good using the defence: “Even Jesus did not please everyone” and that “It’s not as easy as it seems”. Of course, he’s right on that last point, sculpting a face out of metal is not easy which is generally why only people skilled enough to do it right are commissioned….