Football museums in Maderia, Manchester and worldwide

Problems
Where to take your sporty kids and husband on holiday? How to make conversation with a taxi driver whose first question is which football team do you support?

Answers
Football museums are great outings and good topics of conversation. You can plan a visit, dream of a visit, talk about the venue.

1 Cristiano Ronaldo Museum, Funchal, Madeira (Portuguese island)
2 Football Museum, Manchester, England

Story
When I was teaching English to an English-speaking pupil in England who had no interest in essay writing I asked him to write me a two page essay. I suggested several subjects, inducing, his family, his school, the area where he lived, music, gardens. Blank looks. So I asked, "What are your interests? What do you do at weekends all day?" His only interest was football. After a moment registering what seemed a dead end, I said brightly: "What would you like to write about - your favourite footballer, your favourite team, the rules of football?" He brightened up, but could not find a sentence to say.

I persisted. "What football programme do you watch? Can you write down the time and name for me so I can watch it? What's the name of your favourite team?"

I wondered whether I had achieved my purpose. I had. The next week he came back with a long English essay, four A4 pages! All about football. I was delighted.

I am now geared up to give a speech or encourage a speaker, using football, football museums and statues of footballers as the subject.

Football Sculptures To See
Bust of Cristiano Ronaldo at Cristiano Ronaldo airport, Madeira
Splash (was outside the original site of the Football Museum which was in Preston and has moved to Manchester. See Wikipedia shows pictures of the Bobby Moore sculpture at Wembley Stadium, London, England
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_association_football_statues

The Sir Tom Finney, a pub in Penwortham, near Preston.

Tips
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_Museum
Urbis Building, Cathedral Gardens, Todd St, City Centre, Manchester M4 3BG, UK
Phone: +44 161 605 8200.
Opened: February 16, 2001
Hours: Open today (Friday March 31 2017)· 10AM–5PM.
The museum contains the Lowry painting: Going To The Match.

At the end of the Wikipedia article you will find links to the Hall of Fame for many other countries and areas such as Asia, Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Scotland.

Summary of Sites To Visit
UK
The Sir Tom Finney, a pub in Penwortham, near Preston.
Statue Splash (still in Preston?)

Portuguese
Bust of Cristiano Ronaldo at airport, Madeira
http://www.complex.com/style/2014/06/the-most-important-soccer-statues-worldwide/headbutt

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Please like, follow and share my posts.

I like Madeira's airport bust of Cristiano Ronaldo, and the CR7 museum website

Problems
A caricature of somebody looks weird. A bust doesn't look like them.

Answers
As the artist said, you can't please everybody. The bust pleases me. I love statues and busts of people. I was not interested in the footballer before but now I am.

I was interested to learn that Madeira's capital, Funchal, also has a museum about the footballer, local hero, partly because he is a rags to riches story.

The Museum is called CR7, the CR standing for Cristiano Ronaldo. Their website is in Portuguese and English. Just click on the letters EN at the top right to get the English.

However, it's pretty easy to read at least the headlines and captions in Portuguese, especially if you know French or Spanish or Latin or Italian. (I have fluent French and I have been learning Spanish and Italian on Duolingo - after a year of Italian and a year of Spanish I shall move on to Portuguese.)

Translating the words on the website at a glance
Cristiano - Christian
Ronaldo - Ronald
museu - museum
oro - gold
ballon - ball

CR7 Museum, Funchal, Madeira
The museum would be a good introduction to football even if you previously had no interest in it. The museum displays:
the gold boots; and
golden ball; interactive
exhibits allowing you to take a Selfie with still or moving objects and pictures of the world's favourite footballer.

Can I really make such a claim? Yes, go to the site and you will see his awards from football organisations.

Fast Facts
Madeira - Portuguese island

Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo
From Wikipedia

See Photo of Cristiano Ronaldo
English: Cristiano Ronaldo
Photo Date 28 November 2015, 11:31:26
Source Football.ua
Author Дмитрий Журавель

Tips
1 Photo opportunity - Madeira airport.
2 Museum, Funchal
3 Facebook page on the museum
https://www.facebook.com/MuseuCr7/

Museum website
https://museucr7.com
Reviews from TripAdvisor
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Attraction_Review-g189167-d5993654-Reviews-CR7_Museum-Funchal_Madeira_Madeira_Islands.html

Portugal
I always found the Portuguese friendly. After investigation I discovered that the reason wasn't just personality of people living in relaxing warm environments. (The Italians are also warm and friendly.) Personality was augmented by happy history. The Portuguese have been friendly towards the British for centuries. The British were enthusiastic buyers of Port from Portugal, pink, sweet Mateus Rose in those attractive hourglass bottles which could quickly be converted into inexpensive bedside and lounge lamps the nineteen sixties. The friendship goes way back to the time when The Spanish rulers were waging war on Portugal and England so the Portuguese and British had a common cause.

Saved while researching - come back for more in five minutes.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.