Premanand Divkar, president of the Calangute Constituency Forum, slammed the Cristiano Ronaldo statue.

As the state of Goa wants to inspire the next generation of footballers, Cristiano Ronaldo has been honored with a contentious large sculpture.

In the former Portuguese colony, a statue of the Portugal and Manchester United superstar was inaugurated.

According to The Times of India, the monument in Calangute cost over £12,000 and weighs a massive 65 stone.

Goa minister Michael Lobo posted two photos of the statue onto his Twitter account and wrote: ‘For the love of football and at the request of our youth we put up Cristiano Ronaldo’s statue in the park to inspire our youngsters to take football to greater heights.

‘It was an honour to inaugurate the beautification of open space, landscaping, garden with foundation and walkway.’

He told ANI: ‘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.

‘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.’

The statue, however, has divided opinion, with some reportedly waving black flags in protest of its installation.

Meanwhile, some critics have suggested that footballers from their own country should have received the honor instead.

‘There are so many great footballers from Calangute like Bruno Coutinho and Yolanda D’Souza, who have brought laurels to India by playing football at international level. Why couldn’t their statues be installed? They are from Calangute. Why the Portuguese footballer’s statue has been installed,’ Calangute constituency forum president Premanand Divkar told The Navhind Times.

Goa, a state in western India, was a Portuguese colony until 1960, when India conquered it.

Ronaldo bust in the five-time World Cup winner’s jersey. A few years ago, the birthplace of a Ballon d’Or winner drew widespread notice.

The bust was unveiled when Madeira airport, Portugal, was renamed in Ronaldo’s honor in March 2017. Madeiran artist Emanuel Santos was tasked with creating the image of Ronaldo and worked on the project for three weeks.

The effort, however, was widely derided, and the sculpture was replaced with a new version.