Soccer Star Brandi Chastain Responds to Her 'Odd' Hall of Fame Plaque: I Look Like Mickey Rooney!

Gillian Telling
Updated

At least Brandi Chastain has a sense of humor about it.

The two-time World Cup soccer champion was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame on Monday, and the bronze plaque they presented to her looked a little um … different to what Chastain, 49, usually looks like.

“It’s not the most flattering,” Chastain said. “But it’s nice.”

However, Twitter didn’t let the artist off the hook so easily, comparing the plaque’s image to that of Gary Busey, Mickey Rooney, Babe Ruth, Nathan Lane, a “stoned” Jimmy Carter and New England Patriot’s coach Bill Belichick.

The portrait is reminiscent of the much-mocked bronze bust of soccer star Christiano Ronaldo that was unveiled at an airport in Portugal in 2017, as well as the upstate New York statue of Lucille Ball that was dubbed “Scary Lucy.”

Chastain opened up about the plaque on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Tuesday evening, and proved she’s a good sport about the head-scratching tribute.

“Something struck me as odd,” Chastain told Kimmel with a smile, who got her first look at the plaque at Monday’s event, while standing in front of an audience.

“I didn’t want to make a scene,” she added.

But there’s certainly no hard feelings from the soccer champ, who notes that since the plaque was revealed “it’s been a great day of laughter.”

She even weighs in on the person she thinks the plaque resembles most: actor Mickey Rooney. And that’s not necessarily a terrible thing.

“He’s very talented, as I’m sure you know, and he had a very long career. So we have a couple things in common, I guess,” she said.

Meanwhile, Twitter was pretty thrilled to poke fun at the the initial plaque:

Both Ronaldo and Ball’s bronze statues have since been replaced with much closer likenesses — and looks like Chastain will get her shot at redemption soon, too.

“I’ve been in discussions with them, and they’re gracious. They obviously didn’t want this to happen,” she told Kimmel. “They did say they would like to give it another chance — and I’m sure it will be great.”