A statue is one of the greatest honors an athlete or coach can receive. Typically rarer than a retired number, an individual effectively becomes immortal when he or she becomes a permanent fixture in bronze, whether outside a venue or in the heart of a city.
In a few rare cases, athletes might be wishing their statue wasn't so permanent, though.
While a majority of sports statues, from Michael Jordan's dunking effigy in Chicago to Roberto Clemente's tribute outside PNC Park, are iconic, these are memorable for the wrong reasons.
The Sporting News ranks the 10 ugliest sports statues erected, from Dwyane Wade to Wayne Gretzky.
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10. Wayne Gretzky (1989)
Location: Rogers Place, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Description: Originally unveiled in 1989 during his historic playing career and moved to Rogers Place in 2016, the statue of Wayne Gretzky mostly captures his face and hair accurately but misses the mark elsewhere for the most legendary figure in hockey history. The Oilers logo on Gretzky's bronze jersey is so faint that you almost have to squint to see it. From a distance, it looks as though Gretzky is just wearing a sweater — and not necessarily a hockey sweater. Most of the iconic images of Gretzky lifting the Stanley Cup also show "The Great One" with more emotion on his face than the calm, generic-looking smile depicted on the statue. Gretzky's statue may not fit the definition of "bad," but it isn't the grand tribute one would expect for a bonafide legend in the hockey-crazed city of Edmonton.
Reaction: There was no significant backlash to the unveiling of the statue, which took place at a ceremony shortly after Gretzky was traded to the Kings. Gretzky was gracious for the statue, telling the crowd, "I don't know how I would put into words what it's like to stand here and see yourself."
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9. Jerry Richardson (2016)
Location: Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, North Carolina (removed in 2020)
Description: Unveiled in 2016, the statue for then-Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson was short-lived. Richardson sold the team in 2018 after allegations of racist and sexist statements in the workplace surfaced the previous year, and while new owner David Tepper was contractually obligated to keep the statue in place, it was removed in 2020 amid fears it could be damaged during George Floyd protests. The statue was never restored, with a Richardson spokesperson saying the former owner had "moved on" from the matter. Richardson died in 2023.
As for the statue itself, the idea was a bit bizarre. The statue depicted a 13-foot tall Richardson surrounded by two life-sized black panthers with green eyes and featured the then-owner holding a football out in front of himself. The statue also gave Richardson virtually no neck, though it captured his hair fairly accurately.
Reaction: The quiet reveal of the statue in the summer of 2016, for Richardson's 80th birthday, didn't elicit much reaction at first, but a large segment of Panthers fans demanded its removal after the allegations surfaced in late 2017.
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8. Andy Murray (2011)
Location: Shanghai, China
Description: Tennis star Andy Murray received a traditional terracotta statue at the 2011 Shanghai Open in China, but the effigy immediately raised some eyebrows. While the terracotta army uniform and tennis racket were an unusual combination on their own, the statue also exaggerated some features of Murray's head and face, giving him a much larger head than he probably should have had and seemingly aging him by 20-30 years; Murray was just 24 at the time.
Reaction: "I thought I was better looking than that," Murray said when the statue was revealed. In 2025, the retired tennis star said he expected an upcoming Wimbledon statue in his honor to be much better.
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7. Harry Caray (1999)
Location: Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois
Description: Legendary broadcaster Harry Caray will always have a place in the hearts of Cubs fans, and he will also always have a place at Wrigley Field. A statue was dedicated to Caray in 1999, a year after his death from a heart attack, but it's a peculiar design. The aren't any major issues with the top half of the statue, with Caray seemingly singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in a Cubs jacket, but his legs blend into the heads of fans and young children. While the intention might have been to show Caray connecting with fans, it instead looks like something out of a zombie movie.
Reaction: The statue didn't elicit many documented negative reactions at the time, perhaps because Caray had just died a year earlier. Caray's widow, meanwhile, had only positive sentiments. "The statue looks wonderful, and I'm very happy with the outcome," she said.
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6. Walter Johnson (2009)
Location: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
Description: It's easy to see what the Nationals were going for with their statue of Walter Johnson, who technically played for the Twins franchise but spent his entire Hall of Fame career in Washington D.C. The organization tried to depict Johnson's entire throwing motion from start to finish, also showing the progression of the ball coming out of his hand. Unfortunately, it looks more like Johnson has three arms, or like the front of the statue was damaged. Sometimes, simpler is just better.
Reaction: Johnson's grandson was not a fan of the statue, telling The Washington Times in 2009 that the effigy was "hideous."
"I expressed to [the sculptor] in no uncertain terms that I was appalled,” he said. “He said nothing at all, and other people at the studio were shocked that I found anything wrong. ... I blame the arts commission for giving its okay to the statue."
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5. David Beckham (2012)
Location: Several cities worldwide (temporary)
Description: To be fair, the 10-foot metallic statues of soccer star David Beckham that were erected in 2012 were only part of a temporary campaign by apparel company H&M. Beckham, who was an underwear model, was not supposed to be depicted as an athlete. Still, the statues were bizarre. They didn't seem to capture Beckham's face well, instead making him seem like any generic mannequin, but most of the attention was not drawn to his face — it was drawn toward the underwear, where H&M made sure the soccer great was, in a word, well-endowed.
Reaction: While the statues were unusual for a number of reasons, people still took pictures with them across the globe — perhaps partly because Beckham's underwear was nearly at face level. "I'm very happy that so far people seem to like it," Beckham said of the underwear campaign as the statues started popping up.
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4. Michael Essien (2010s)
Location: Kumasi, Ghana
Description: A statue of former Chelsea star Michael Essien was quietly erected in his home country of Ghana in the 2010s, but it wasn't well known until a journalist tweeted out an image of the effigy in 2018. The statue depicts a robotic-looking Essien with disproportionate features and a botched jersey. Essien's head also appears to have some damage, though that could have happened well after the statue went up.
Reaction: ESPN likened the depiction of Essien to "C-3PO in a Chelsea shirt" as fans questioned what the thought-process behind the creation was, but Essien shied away from criticism and simply retweeted an image of the statue.
This statue of Michael Essien in Ghana makes the Cristiano Ronaldo one look like the work of Leonardo da Vinci. pic.twitter.com/X9nWvU4p3F
— Coral (@Coral) January 3, 2018
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3. Diego Maradona (2017)
Location: Kolkata, India
Description: After Argentinian soccer legend Diego Maradona visited India and gained a major following in the country, he was honored with a statue in Kolkata in 2017. The result was not ideal. The statue wasn't necessarily a disaster, but it just didn't look much like Maradona, with his facial features depicted inaccurately and his hair just a little bit off. Even so, the statue remained up and was used as a gathering point to honor Maradona when he died in 2020.
Reaction: Some said the statue looked more like a grandmother than a soccer legend, while others compared the depiction of Maradona to NBA great Larry Bird. Maradona took the high road, attending the reveal and telling the crowd, "I am not god of football but a simple footballer. I'm happy to be here in Kolkata again. It's amazing to have my statue here."
Statue of Diego Maradona unveiled in India. Is it me or could this be repurposed as Larry Bird ? pic.twitter.com/XJwPJzqSOY
— Maximiliano Bretos (@MaxBretosSports) December 11, 2017
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2. Cristiano Ronaldo (2017)
Location: Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport, Madeira, Portugal (replaced in 2018)
Description: Sculptor Emanuel Santos was tasked with creating a bronze bust of soccer great Cristiano Ronaldo after Madeira's airport was renamed in Ronaldo's honor, but the unveiling set off a firestorm of criticism in 2017. The bust gives Ronaldo an unusually small face and seemingly less hair than he actually had at the time. The expression on the bust's face also surprised fans. After the backlash, Santos said Ronaldo saw the bust ahead of time and only requested minor changes. "He only asked for some wrinkles that gave 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," Santos said. The bust was replaced by another sculpture of Ronaldo by a different artist in 2018.
Reaction: The reveal sparked a tidal wave of criticism and jokes on social media, with some headlines calling the bust "hideous." Ronaldo's statue is frequently referenced even now when inaccurate or unusual statues are erected. Santos, meanwhile, created a new bust, but it was not used by the airport.
29.03.2017 vs. 29.03.2018
— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 29, 2018
Emmanuel Santos' shot at redemption. pic.twitter.com/A91RjDJCOF
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1. Dwyane Wade (2024)
Location: Kaseya Center, Miami, Florida
Description: The Heat honored three-time NBA champion Dwyane Wade with a statue outside the Kaseya Center in 2024, but the sculpture quickly received backlash across social media. While the statue at least goes a step beyond most others and adds major splashes of color by coloring Wade's Heat jersey, the face just doesn't look much like Wade at all. The statue makes Wade appear as though he's 80 or 90 years old and left fans wondering how it was approved without looking much like the franchise legend. The statue depicts Wade with his mouth agape, as the inspiration was his reaction to a 2009 buzzer-beater in which he jumped up on the scorer's table and yelled, "This is my house!" One of the two sculptors who worked on the statue was Omri Amrany, who also created Walter Johnson's controversial statue. Amrany defended his work, telling Miami reporter Will Manso, "I couldn't do better than that. I don't think anybody else can do better than that."
Reaction: Fans generally agreed the statue didn't look much like Wade, and the former Heat star himself seemed to agree even as he brushed it off. "If I wanted it to look like me, I'd just stand outside the arena and y'all can take photos," Wade said the day after the statue was revealed. "It don't need to look like me. It's the artistic version of a moment that happened that we're trying to cement."
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