Sculptor Emanuel Santos was met with widespread mockery after unveiling a Cristiano Ronaldo bust at Madeira Airport in 2017. Despite the piece of art receiving praise from the football legend himself, the sculpture quickly went viral and drew many unfavourable comments on social media. As a result, Emanuel has given the sculpture another go after being challenged by B/R Football, and his second one has received a much better reaction! Speaking to the site about his first attempt, Emanuel teared up, saying: "This is hard to talk about. But fortunately, that is over."
Emanuel gave the bust another go
The Portuguese native had never done a bust before, and revealed that he took on the project because he "like[d] challenges". He also told Bleacher Report that the reaction made him feel "isolated", but maintained that he liked his work. He said: "I liked the result and was really proud of it. And if I had to do it again, I would make everything exactly the same." In the video, he also pointed out that the sculpture certainly got people talking. "I learned to deal with certain criticism and well, here I am… Even though there are people who make and make negative comments, there are still many people who value it," he explained. "And what I've learnt through all this time, no matter how few people can see the positive side of the work, they are enough to give us strength."
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Twitter users were quick to praise the second bust, with one writing: "Great courage and determination from the sculptor to redo his work after so much criticism. Definitely a great improvement," while another added: "It's so much better! I can't imagine how hard it is to make a perfect likeness of someone working only from photos."
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