Ronaldo set to become football’s first billionaire

By: Stephen Olom

Portuguese superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo is on course to becoming the first billionaire footballer in the world.

The ex- Manchester United and Real Madrid player has a lot of lucrative investment portfolios outside football.

With the outbreak of coronavirus stopping all sports competition, Ronaldo and his fellow Juventus teammates decided to help the club maintain a healthy financial account by taking a pay cut.

The player who took a pay cut of £3.45million of his Juventus wages, will hardly notice the shortfall in his on field earnings due to the success of his business away from the pitch.

Ronaldo has a number of projects off the field of play that cash-in on his profile as one of the best footballers in the history of the game. That success means he is still on the brink of taking his career earnings into the billions this year.

Ronaldo, earned around £36m last year through endorsements and advertising a number of products.

According to Forbes, Ronaldo earned a staggering £89m last year, but his Juventus wages accommodate for marginally over half of that income at about £53m, once bonuses are all counted.

Forbes adds that Ronaldo earns around £36m a year from his endorsements, including his sponsorship agreement with Nike, his underwear brand and an array of other advertising projects such as footwear and cologne. He has also appeared on the front cover of the FIFA 19 video game.

And with his earnings from those ventures all still set to roll in this year, it means the Portuguese star is in line to become footballs first billion dollar man – and shows just how marginal his £3.45m pay cut will turn out to be for him.

Ronaldo also has his own CR7 aftershave that contributes to his astronomical level of income.

Ronaldo, Forbes says, would become only the third active sportsman to crack $1bn after Floyd Mayweather and Tiger Woods – both of whom have had much longer careers in boxing and golf than Ronaldo, 35, will ever have playing football.

The staggering figures also serve to underline just how lucrative an off-field portfolio of business ventures can be for a footballer, especially if you are as famous as Ronaldo.

Ronaldo is the third-highest paid player, behind Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar, but has significantly maximised his earnings through his brand and reputation.

The success of Ronaldo’s brand off of the pitch is underlined by the fact he is worth more than Lionel Messi even though the Barcelona man is on a bigger wage from his club

In a regular year at Juventus, Ronaldo would earn £53m once all of his bonuses are counted

Since the outbreak of the virus has halted football in Italy and eventually across Europe, Ronaldo has been self-isolating in Madeira with his family.

Three of Ronaldo’s Juventus teammates – Blaise Matuidi, Paulo Dybala and Daniele Rugani – have tested positive for coronavirus.