| Name | Cristiano Ronaldo |
| Age | 37 years (born 1985) |
| Profession | Footballer |
| Net Worth | $500 million |
| Annual Salary | $70 million |
| Sponsors | Nike, Clear Shampoo, Herbalife |
When it comes to football, Cristiano Ronaldo is easily one of the most recognizable faces on the planet. This world famous personality is one of the best in the game today. In fact, many say that Ronaldo ranks as one of the best players ever, in the history of the game.
He is up there with the likes of Pele, George Best and Diego Maradona, in the minds of football fans and experts alike. It is quite evident that Ronaldo has his own fan following numbering in the millions. His popularity and net worth is increasing every day.
Ronaldo’s nationality is Portuguese, and he plays for his country professionally in World Cup FIFA Games. His face commands respect and it is clear that he is one of the best remunerated sports entertainers, product ambassadors and business generators on Planet Earth.
It has been estimated that Cristiano Ronaldo regularly makes between $100 million to $150 million on an annual basis through his salary and from endorsing other products.
In the calendar year 2020, Ronaldo made $120 million in total. This included about $70 million through salary, couipled with $50 million from endorsements.
This football great is a representative of famous firms including Nike, Clear Shampoo and Herbalife.
His playing jersey of Number 7 is equally, if not more famous than Number 10 belonging to Lionel Messi. In real terms, he is often compared and contrasted with Messi in terms of who is better. Strictly on the basis of technical skills, it has been revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo is much the better footballer.
If his level of earnings increase to $1 billion, Ronaldo will join the elite club of sportsmen including the all-time greats such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Floyd Mayweather and Michael Schumacher. All of these players have earned in excess of $1 billion in their playing career.
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Early Life
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro came into the world on 5 February 1985. Ronaldo was born in very humble circumstances. Ronaldo’s mother did cooking and cleaning chores in different households.
Ronaldo’s father was a gardener and also acted as an equipment manager for a local football outfit. The family lived in a single room.
Ronaldo’s father was impressed with the personality of Ronald Reagan, a film actor and former President of the USA. In fact Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy occupied the White House as POTUS and First Lady when Ronaldo was born.
Therefore his father included Ronaldo in his son’s name in honor of the US President.
Passion for Sport
Like all great players, Cristiano Ronaldo displayed a passion for football right form an early age. By the time Ronaldo was 12 years of age, he had already joined up with the team of Sporting Lisbon.
Realizing that this sport was full of potential for him, Ronaldo dropped out from school at the age of 17 years to fully concentrate on the sport of football.
While playing his favorite game, Ronaldo discovered that he had a medical condition of a racing heart that would require surgery. He underwent the required procedure and putting it behind him, Ronaldo returned to football in earnest.
Start of Ronaldo’s Professional Career
As explained above, Ronaldo made his professional sporting debut for Sporting Lisbon. History has recorded that he scored twice in his first game with the team. The final score was 3-0. Lisbon is the capital of Portugal. In Portugal they have the Primiera League.
After Sporting Lisbon outplayed Manchester United 3-1 in a match in 2003, Manchester United’s manager Sir Alex Ferguson was very much impressed by the performance of Cristiano Ronaldo in that game.
Realizing the potential of this footballing genius, Ferguson was interested in signing Ronaldo to play for Manchester United.
Cristiano Ronaldo thus joined Manchester United in the next football season. Ronaldo played his first match for Manchester United as a substitute. Even here the teenager impressed by scoring a goal through a free kick in the 4-0 final score.
Career with Manchester United
Cristiano Ronaldo continued to play for Manchester United for the next few seasons. He asked for a transfer in the 2006-2007 season which did not materialize. However, the football genius continued to learn and improve his skills in the process of playing for one of the greatest teams in the English Premier League.
Ronaldo made over 20 goals in the 2006-2007 football season. Manchester United won the Premier League. In the 2007-2008 season, Ronaldo scored a total of 42 goals. This was a new record for the club. Ronaldo spent one more football season at Manchester United and left after the 2008-2009 season concluded.
Career with Real Madrid
Cristiano Ronaldo next moved on to play for Real Madrid in the Spanish League. The level of his skills was such that he managed to score in each of his first four games at Real Madrid. He ended the season with 33 goals in his tally.
The following season saw Ronaldo better his own previous record, as he scored 40 goals in this season.
Ronaldo was moving from strength to strength, and his star was shining bright. In the next season, Ronaldo broke all records in professional football as he scored a total of 60 goals.
In fact he ended the year 2013 by scoring an accumulated total of 69 goals. This superlative feat at the highest level of the game put him in contention for the Ballon d’Or for the very first time.
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Career with Juventus
Ronaldo next moved on to the football club Juventus in 2019. He ended his initial season with Juventus scoring 21 goals. 2020 was his second season with the club. He has scored 42 goals in two seasons with the club.
In 2018, Ronaldo signed a 4 year contract with the team Juventus for a basic annual salary of $64 million. He represented Juventus for a total of 9 years of his playing career.
Other Accomplishments
Ronaldo has also had a remarkable international career. His team won the Euro Cup in 2016. As the captain of his country’s team, Ronaldo has undertaken more of a leadership role. His emotions ride high in every match that he plays.
Ronaldo and Football Themed Hotels
The year 2016 saw Cristiano Ronaldo also open up a football themed hotel in the area of Funchal in the Madeira district where he was born. The hotel has a total of 48 rooms.
Among the mouth opening amenities here are an infinity pool on the roof, including a Jacuzzi and a Sauna facility. There is also an open air themed gym. This is topped off by a football field themed bathing lounge.
For those sports enthusiasts that want to view the accolades that this star player has accumulated over the years, Ronaldo has littered the hotel with his memorabilia items such as shirts, shoes and trophies that lie in different locations all through the structure of the building.
A rather interesting thing about Ronaldo’s soccer themed hotel is that the rooms are not outrageously priced, compared to some of the other luxury hotel suites across the globe.
Booking the standard room in this place would set you back about $243 a night, which is not too bad. Plans are afoot to open up similar themed hotels by Ronaldo and his construction team in Madrid, Lisbon and even New York.
The soccer star is so popular in Portugal that he even has an airport named after him. It is about 20 minutes’ drive from the hotel.
The hotel is equipped with private elevators, and a carpeted hallway that is even fashioned in the shape of a football field. An overbearing picture of Cristiano Ronaldo himself at play is available to greet guests as they enter the hotel.
Questionable Allegations
In 2008, an unsubstantiated accusation was made against Ronaldo by a woman named Kathryn Mayoraga. She claimed that the football great raped her in a hotel room in Las Vegas back in 2009.
Although a lot of time has passed since the incident, police were still investigating it back in 2018. Two of Ronaldo’s greatest sponsors, Nike and Electronic Arts (EA) had expressed concerns over this incident.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo had himself dismissed the claims, adding on social media that he considered rape to be a heinous and despicable crime against women. He himself would never commit it, rather he was the first to vehemently condemn it.
Life is indeed replete with such incidents where people embroil themselves in such situations just to malign the character of celebrities or make money out of it.
Annual Earnings through Salary and Endorsements
On the average, it can be surmised that Cristiano Ronaldo earns around $100 million a year. This comprises about $60 million in salary and $40 million in income through endorsing selected brands.
Cristiano Ronaldo has a long term $1 billion Lifetime deal with the Nike brand. To sweeten the deal, Ronaldo was it is rumored offered a $1 million sign-on bonus.
For Nike, Ronaldo’s popularity has generated a lucrative season for the brand as well. His followers increased by 60 million in just one year. Nike estimated that he had been instrumental in generating an income of at least $474 million over the course of just one year. The football great also markets his own brand of perfumes and clothing.
Ronaldo’s Playing Style
- Football’s greatest international player began his professional career as a winger, displaying considerable speed and dexterity in his ability to outfox opponents and score goals.
- The player has also featured his own technique for taking free kicks and striking from a distance.
- One technique involves striking the center of the ball so that no one can determine its trajectory with any degree of certainty.
- As his career and age progressed, Ronaldo has developed into a traditionally aggressive striker, moving from the center of the field.
- He has modified his playing style to become a passer, assisting other players who are younger and have more stamina.
- He is famous for his ability to get the ball from opponents, and then move the ball towards their goal. His passes can be searing and incisive, cleverly tearing down the opposing team’s defenses.
- His ability to read the game and make stunning moves is legendary.
- Ronaldo has certainly worked on his capacity to score using football crosses. He often turns these into headers or bicycle kicks that are spectacular to watch. His accuracy rate of scoring through free kicks has however dropped in recent times.
List of Accolades
Cristiano Ronaldo is easily one of the most awarded players in the history of the game. However we must realize that the explosion of social media has played its role in promoting the rise of football like no other time in the previous era.
The profusion of video content, TV channels, sports news, commentaries and interviews have catapulted football and other popular sporting events to the forefront of our hearts and minds. We discuss and comment on every player’s moves.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been the recipient of football’s highest honor, the Ballon D’Or a total of 5 times so far. He has also been awarded the Golden Boot a total of 4 times.
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Summarizing his awards, Ronaldo had accumulated 29 trophies till 2020. Cristiano Ronaldo has scored an amazing 700 plus goals in the history of his services for club and country level games.
Ronaldo has scored a record total of 128 goals in the Champions League and nine goals at the Euro Cup level.
By the time Ronaldo touched 35 years of age, he had played in over 1000 matches at the professional level. His fitness is such that he is a threat to world teams even today.
We can conclude by saying that the life of Ronaldo has definitely not been a bed of roses. It has its own sets of ups and downs. Ronaldo has emerged from relative obscurity to become one of the greatest sportsmen of our time. And to see him play, our lives are definitely the better for it.