Cristiano Ronaldo Statue in India's Goa Sparks Twitterstorm

Cristiano Ronaldo may be the holder of numerous world records in football but he's still a controversial figure on the planet owing to his past actions. In 2009, an American woman accused him of raping her in a Las Vegas hotel, an allegation the footballer has denied.

A statue of five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo in the Indian state of Goa has triggered a severe backlash on social media.

Local officials claimed that the statue in the town of Calangute, situated barely 15 kilometres from Goa's state capital Panaji, was installed to motivate youngsters to take up football as a career.

"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", Goa Minister Michael Lobo told media on Tuesday. "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".

Twitter users, however, were not impressed with the explanation given by officials.

Ronaldo, who is Portuguese, reminded people of the state's colonial past as Goa was once ruled by Portugal and only became a part of independent India after the nation's army invaded the state in December 1961.

Meanwhile, others argued that instead of installing a statue of Ronaldo, authorities should have unveiled a statue of the Indian team's skipper Sunil Chhetri or other footballing legends in the country.

A golden statue of footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has been unveiled in Goa.

The iconic footballer has been the subject of statues all over the world, with varying degrees of resemblance.https://t.co/Gk97JUvZT5 pic.twitter.com/UWtaeouCjt

— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 29, 2021

Where are those Goans opposing Shivaji’s statue saying “Why we want status of non Goan Shivaji in Goa”

Asking these Goans a simple question: Is “Ronaldo” a Goan? How is “Ronaldo” related to Goa now? Don’t we have Goan Footballers to remembers and be proud of? pic.twitter.com/lP7JiVeJfy

— Uday Barad 🇮🇳 (@udaygbarad) December 30, 2021

Disgusting to see Ronaldo's statue in Goa. This is a man who has raped a woman. The silence of football fans on Ronaldo's rapist past always speaks a lot. Just another new low for India. Well at least Ronaldo's statue in Goa means Manu's statue in High Court has competition now

— Sankul Sonawane (@Sankul333) December 29, 2021

Indian state of Goa, which was a Portuguese colony until 1961, has unveiled a statue of Cristiano Ronaldo... 🧐 We definitely have our own football legends to celebrate. https://t.co/o5WkaANbBZ

— Sarakshi Rai (@Sarakshi) December 29, 2021

Why is there a statue of #Ronaldo in #Goa? Are we going go back to colonial times? pic.twitter.com/OjaIDY8vKh

— Ⓜⓘⓒⓗⓐⓔⓛ (@_lusotart_) December 29, 2021

Still not out of slave mentality. Could have installed Sunil Chhetri's statue. I am not against Ronaldo but statue of a Portuguese player in the capital of Goa is preposterous; that too by a BJP minister 😑

— Chinmay Gokhale (@chinmaygo) December 29, 2021

Despite the severe backlash, the Manchester United forward, who is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, remains hugely popular across the world, including India.