• Emanuel Santos happy with commemorative bust of Real Madrid striker • ‘He only asked for some wrinkles to be changed and to make it more jovial’

The sculptor who made the bronze bust of Cristiano Ronaldo has admitted that his creation may not be to everybody’s taste but insisted the Real Madrid striker had given his seal of approval before it was unveiled.

Emanuel Santos, a Madeiran artist, was chosen to recreate the image of the four-time Fifa player of the year which will adorn the newly named Aeroporto Cristiano Ronaldo in Funchal after offering his services to the owner of the airport, where he was previously employed. Santos spent three weeks creating the bust before it was sent to the Portuguese mainland to be cast in bronze.

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It was then unveiled on Wednesday by Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and will be on permanently on show outside the terminal entrance. But while social media users delighted in pointing out that rather than looking like the 32-year-old Real Madrid forward the bust was a closer resemblance to the former Republic of Ireland striker Niall Quinn, Santos insisted he was happy with his creation.

“It is impossible to please the Greeks and Trojans. Neither did Jesus please everyone,” he said. “This is a matter of taste, so it is not as simple as it seems. What matters is the impact that this work generated. There is always the possibility of making a difference, I was prepared for all this. I used as a base some photos of Cristiano Ronaldo that I found on the internet, nothing specific. I put the photos next to me and started working on the bust.”

Ronaldo appeared to see the funny side at Wednesday’s ceremony but Santos was adamant that the 32-year-old had given the bust his blessing – after some minor alterations.

“Cristiano saw the photos that his brother sent him. I was with the brother at Cristiano’s museum in Madeira and from the messages he sent, I could tell that he liked what he saw,” he said. “He only asked for some wrinkles that give him a certain expression in his face when he’s about to laugh to be changed. He said it made him look older and asked for it to be thinned out a bit to make it smoother and more jovial. But they gave it the go-ahead; they liked what they saw.”