What is it with soccer players and terrible bronze sculptures? Cristiano Ronaldo’s bust at the airport in his hometown was pretty bad but it doesn’t even come close to being as terrible as what happened to poor Brandi Chastain. Time
And soccer fans thought the Cristiano Ronaldo statue was bad...
Soccer star Brandi Chastain, a World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist, was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame on Monday night in San Francisco. But when her Hall of Fame plaque was unveiled, the likeness looked nothing like Chastain.
She chose her words carefully in describing the plaque: “It’s not the most flattering,” Chastain said, via the San Jose Mercury News. “But it’s nice.”
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ann Killion was not as diplomatic. Killion tweeted: “Brandi Chastain is one of the most beautiful athletes I’ve ever covered. How this became her plaque is a freaking embarrassment for BASHOF.”
How bad was it? Chastain fans on Twitter suggested the likeness resembled John Elway, Rex Ryan, Gary Busey and even former president Jimmy Carter.
Most soccer fans remember Chastain another way -- celebrating in her sports bra after her game-winning kick in the 1999 World Cup.
Anthony Savicke, the Hall of Fame's vice president of finance and administration, told the Mercury News on Monday he had not heard any complaints, and that the likenesses on plaques are "representations."
