Portugal airport to be named after Ronaldo
Print Edition
WELCOME to Cristiano Ronaldo Airport.
That will likely be the message awaiting passengers in the Madeira Islands when the local airport is renamed after the local star.
Ronaldo is expected to attend a ceremony at the airport outside his hometown of Funchal today, a day after his Portugal side plays Sweden in the city in a friendly.
It will be the first time Ronaldo plays with the national team in the city where he grew up. Funchal also features a Ronaldo statue, a museum about him, and a hotel complex named after him.
“This game is a great tribute to the people of Madeira, they deserve it,” Ronaldo said on the Portuguese Football Federation website.
Portugal’s squad landed on Monday at the airport, displaying the trophy it won at the 2016 European Championship in France.
A sign with the player’s image was already being added to the facade of the airport, which until yesterday was called the Madeira International Airport.
The name change at the airport, known as one of the windiest in the world, attracted a lot of attention locally, with some politicians opposing it and saying that the footballer’s name should be added to a stadium or another sporting venue. Some said the Madeira regional government didn’t have the legal right to make the name change without consulting the main government.
“Sometimes, national gratitude has short memory, but Madeira doesn’t,” Miguel Albuquerque, the president of the Madeira government, said when the name change was announced last year.
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