Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest footballers of all time, if not the greatest. He is where he is because of his ability to maximize his skill sets and his resources – not just on the pitch but off it as well. Here we will be focusing on the latter part. Cristiano Ronaldo’s worth as of 2022 is estimated to be around $490m. The majority of his earnings come from winnings and endorsements. And here, we will be trying to dissect how he built his CR7 brand and his earnings from various avenues.
Cristiano Ronaldo became the first active team-sport star to cross the $1 billion mark of career earnings in 2020 during the pandemic. But, don’t get it confused with his net worth – two different things. Currently, he plays for Manchester United and earns around $650k per week, which amounts to about $33m per year. If we compare his annual earnings of $64m with Juventus and $88m with Real Madrid, it however seems a bit less. But factoring in his age, it is still impressive.
Partnerships and Endorsements
More than 40% of his annual earnings comes from the endorsement and partnership deals which amount to around $50m as per Forbes report 2021. Of all the endorsements, Nike is the most significant as his lifetime contract with them is predicted to yield more than $1 billion. As big as the number $1 billion from a single source seems astonishing, Ronaldo’s social-media presence alone was worth around $470m in 2016 alone. Apart from Nike, Ronaldo has ties with companies with Tag Heuer, Armani, Egyptian Steels, Herbalife, PokerStars, Italia Independent, and Castrol. Among the newer partnerships are Livescore, Clear Haircare, MEO mobile telecommunications, ZujuGp, and Uniecampus.
Social Media
Ronaldo earns an estimated amount nearing $40m annually from Instagram alone. Ronaldo, who currently has 399m followers on Instagram earns approximately $1.6m per sponsored post. Apart from Instagram, he has 150m followers on Facebook and 97.1m followers on Twitter. Ronaldo earns nearly $868,604 per tweet which is the highest amount per tweet. Overall Ronaldo has more than 646m followers across three apps and earns a healthy sum from each.
Real Estate, automobiles, and accessories
As per reports by Mirro, Ronaldo’s property empire worth hovers around $43m. He currently lives in a $4.4m Chesire Mansion, previously owned by Andy Cole. Apart from this, he has a villa worth $6.2m in La Finca, Madrid. He also bought an apartment in Manhattan’s Trump Tower for $18.5m back in 2015. He also owns a stretch of private land on Madeira Island. Ronaldo has a car collection worth around $24m – landing exclusive models from various top brands – Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Bugatti, Maserati, Audi, Mercedes, Bentley, and McLaren to name a few. Ronaldo is also very keen on collecting watches that are worth more than $10m.
Hotels and Personal Brands
Cristiano has his hotel chain which started in 2013 in his hometown Madeira by the name Pestana CR7 Funchal. It has now expanded in New York, Marrakech, Lisbon, and Madrid. Pestana CR7 hotels are joint ventures between Pestana Hotels and Cristiano Ronaldo. Unsurprisingly, Ronaldo also has numerous gyms by the name of CR7 Fitness. Also, he owns various brands such as CR7 Footwear, CR7 underwear, CR7 fragrance, and CR7 Denims.
Although the amounts are vague and in some cases – missing, these are some of the significant routes of Cristiano’s earnings making him one of the world’s marketing giants.
