If you thought that statue of Cristiano Ronaldo was bad…
A new bronze sculpture honouring soccer legend Diego Maradona is being ridiculed online after it was unveiled at a charity event in Kolkata, India.
The 12-foot effigy is supposed to show the soccer champion in his younger days hoisting a World Cup trophy. Maradona helped Argentina defeat West Germany in the 1986 FIFA World Cup final in Mexico and is widely considered one of the sport’s greatest players.
Now retired, the 57-year-old star was on hand to reveal the statue of his likeness to a crowd of fans in the Indian city on Monday.
Despite the sculptor’s best intentions, the figure’s voluminous permed hair, round face, crinkled eyes and oversized trophy prompted many Twitter users to poke fun at it.
A number of critics compared the statue’s look to that of a grandmother or older woman, presumably because of the permed hair.
supposed to be maradona.. looks more like someone's gran pic.twitter.com/z3UO281AyX
— SPFL Banter *** (@splbanter) December 11, 2017
I'm not a fan or Maradona, but this statue looks like an old woman who lives near my mum pic.twitter.com/CfG0B1acyN
— Eggnog Grundy (@GrundyOxford) December 12, 2017
Other users agreed that the sculpture actually resembled the Scottish singer Susan Boyle, who became famous on the reality TV show “Britain’s Got Talent.”
Diego Maradona’s new statue looks like Susan Boyle carrying the World Cup. pic.twitter.com/8ugbIsvnfJ
— TheFootballCommunity (@Footy_Community) December 12, 2017
Another reviewer posted a side-by-side photo of the statue and a photo of a young Roy Hodgson, an English soccer manager and former player.
Genuinely thought this was a statue of Roy Hodgson...
— The Sack Race (@thesackrace) December 12, 2017
...it's Diego Maradona... pic.twitter.com/V9NAVJMdop
Even the fictional bust from the popular children’s show “Art Attack” was suggested as a possible comparison.
Looks like that head in Art Attack https://t.co/6M0vJqZeBj
— Ricky (@rickyyiddo6) December 11, 2017
The bronze figure inevitably invited comparisons to a much-maligned sculpture of Real Madrid star Cristiano Rinaldo that was unveiled earlier this year. That work was criticized so heavily that a new one bearing a much greater likeness to the star was eventually created as an alternative to the first.
About time someone made a proper Cristiano bust pic.twitter.com/9m5aSnrWjp
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cr7Prince4ever) November 26, 2017
Soccer stars aren’t the only celebrities to have their image misinterpreted in sculpture form. A statue commemorating “I Love Lucy” star Lucille Ball made headlines and earned the dubious nickname “Scary Lucy” after it was unveiled in New York in 2015.
Almost as bad as Scary Lucy. pic.twitter.com/2jchBLJZQn
— Sundaynista (@Sundaynista) July 3, 2017
A new Maradona statue has been unveiled and not everybody is convinced