Cristiano Ronaldo will forever have the distinction of being the first team sports athlete to cross the billion-dollar mark in net worth. The legend from Portugal, who is the captain of his country’s national team, is considered one of the best footballers of all time, and for good reason.
Experts praise him for his amazing ability to put the ball in the back of the net, his amazing footwork, his amazing leaps inside the square, his amazing ability to outpace the opponent, his unbelievable work rate, and his dominance on the field.
Ronaldo, who is in his late 30s, still plays like a “freak of nature,” which is how FIFA once famously put it. In fact, it was his incredible play on the field that made him a name that millions of people all over the world knew right away. Still, many people think that what is most amazing about him is how he went from being poor to being rich.
Cristiano Ronaldo: A look at his life and career
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born in Funchal, which is the capital of the Portuguese island of Madeira. He has three older brothers and sisters, and growing up was hard for him. Even though he was poor, that didn’t stop him from loving football.
After a short time with youth clubs, he made his senior debut with Sporting Clube de Portugal in Lisbon at the age of 16. He was the first player in the club’s history to play on the under-16, under-17, under-18, B team, and first team all in the same season.
When the famous Sir Alex Ferguson saw how good he was at football, his life changed. Ferguson quickly bought Ronaldo for about US$19 million so he could play for his Premier League team Manchester United, which is also called “Man United” or “Red Devils.” Ronaldo played for the Red Devils for six years, from 2003 to 2009. During that time, he became a soccer star around the world.
In 2009, the La Liga club Real Madrid paid a then-record USD 96 million to get him. He kept doing great things for Spain, where he played for the longest stretch of his career, from 2008 to 2018. He was there for nine seasons.
At age 33, Serie A club Juventus bought him for USD 100 million, which was the most ever paid by the club and the most ever paid for a player over 30. He moved to Italy. In August 2021, after three seasons, he was re-signed by Man United for a two-year deal. To get him, the Premier League club paid Juventus USD 17.7 million plus USD 9.4 million in extras.
Things got bad between Man United and Ronaldo when, in November 2022, Ronaldo gave a two-part interview to Piers Morgan in which he criticized the club, most of its players, and its manager, Erik Ten Hag.
A week after the interview aired, on November 22, 2022, Man United announced that both the club and Ronaldo had agreed to end the contract.
The club said in a statement, “Cristiano Ronaldo is leaving Manchester United by mutual agreement and will do so right away.”
Ronaldo said in his statement, “After talking with Manchester United, we’ve decided to end our contract early. I’ll always love Manchester United, and I’ll always love the fans. But I think it’s time for me to look for something new to do. I hope the team does well for the rest of the season and in the years to come.”
In his professional career, Ronaldo has won seven league cups. When he won the league title while at Juventus in 2019, he became the first footballer in history to win league cups in Premier League, the La Liga league and Serie A. Besides these, he has three UEFA Super Cup championships, four FIFA Club World Cup trophies, five UEFA Champions League titles, and several other cups for the clubs he has played for. He was also the captain of the Portugal team that won the 2016 Euro Cup. He is now focused on the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Argentine great and current Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) forward Lionel Messi has been compared to Ronaldo a lot over the course of his career. Messi is expected to be the richest athlete in the world by 2022, according to Forbes. Messi has the most Ballon d’Or titles with seven, while Ronaldo has five.
Messi is better than Ronaldo, though, when it comes to football records like most goals scored. The striker from Portugal has scored more than 800 goals for his club and country. With more than 110 goals, he is officially the man or woman who has scored the most goals for his country. He has also scored more than 700 goals for the clubs he has played for.
On the personal front, Ronaldo and his partner, Georgina Rodríguez, are parents to two children. He also has three other children born to surrogate mothers, including his eldest son, Cristiano Ronaldo Jr.
Ronaldo’s career earnings
Forbes has named Cristiano Ronaldo the highest-paid athlete in the world twice, first in 2016 and then again in 2017.
He was the fourth richest athlete in the world, according to Forbes in 2020. Before taxes, he made USD 105 million, which put him in the exclusive club of billion-dollar athletes. Ronaldo’s net worth went over $1 billion, making him the third active athlete to do so after golfer Tiger Woods and boxer Floyd Mayweather. He is the first in a team sport to do so.
Forbes’ 2022 list of the richest athletes in the world put him in third place. The magazine says that Ronaldo made USD 115 million in the 12 months from May 1, 2021, to May 1, 2022.
On-field earnings
Over the course of his career, Cristiano Ronaldo’s salary has changed from season to season, especially in the last few years.
Forbes’ 2022 list says that Cristiano Ronaldo’s salary and bonuses at Man United added up to USD 60 million during the time period used for the report.
Forbes said in March 2020, when Ronaldo was still playing for Juventus, that he had agreed to a pay cut at the Italian club. This meant that his annual salary and bonuses would drop from USD 65 million in 2019 to an estimated USD 46 million in 2020.
Brand endorsements
A big part of Cristiano Ronaldo’s wealth comes from the fact that he works with big brands. Forbes’ list of the richest athletes for 2022 said that Ronaldo’s income outside of sports was USD 55 million. This number was the same as in the 2021 list.
It doesn’t come as a surprise that Ronaldo makes almost as much from endorsements as he does from his salary. The biggest brands in the world can make money off of his fans all over the world. Ronaldo has such a large amount of power that his work with labels can have an effect on them even if they are not working with Ronaldo. Case in point: Coca-Cola. In 2021, Ronaldo moved two of the company’s carbonated drinks out of the way and picked up a water bottle during a press conference before a game. Within 30 minutes, the American company lost $4 billion.
Ronaldo supports brands like Herbalife, Armani, TAG Heuer, and Clear shampoo, among others. According to the Spanish newspaper Marca, the footballer is also an ambassador for the Japanese tech company SIXPAD and the app LiveScore.
In March 2022, he became the new face of Talabat, a Middle Eastern food and grocery delivery service based in Kuwait.
On November 22, that same year, Ronaldo announced his new partnership with luxury watchmaker Jacob & Co. and showed off two watches, Heart of CR7 and Flight of CR7, that he and the company’s founder, Jacob Arabo, had designed together.
“I’m excited to announce that I’m working with one of the best watch brands in the world, @jacobandco. Today, we show off our first watch collection, which I designed with my good friend @jacobarabo,” Ronaldo wrote on Instagram, along with a picture of him wearing one of the watches.
Ronaldo’s properties
One of his most important things is his real estate. Since he turned pro, Ronaldo has lived in places that were almost as nice as palaces.
It’s a long way from when he was growing up on the island of Madeira in Funchal. The humble house he and his family lived in was too small for them. He and his siblings all slept in the same room.
Today, Ronaldo owns some of the most expensive and nicest homes money can buy. During his career, he has spent quality time with his family in these five ultra-luxurious homes in the US and four other countries.
He wants more, though. The Sun said in April 2022, based on information from Portuguese media, that he was building a new mansion in the beautiful Quinta da Marinha area along the Portuguese Riviera for about USD 8 million. The Portuguese press says that Ronaldo will live in this house when he stops playing football.
“Recently, a fence was put up around the land, and Ronaldo bought it. “This is where he’s going to live with his family when he’s done with his career,” a sOurce told the Portuguese magazine TV 7 Dias, according to The Sun.
