Cristiano Ronaldo is not new to breaking records.
And according to Forbes, he has now broken another record – he has become the first footballer ever to earn more than $1 billion during his playing career. He is also the first team sportsperson to break into the coveted $1 billion earnings club.
Ronaldo has earned around $650 of this amount through football while the rest comes from some lucrative brand endorsements deals that the very-popular footballer has signed.
Now 35, Ronaldo is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Juventus. However, he has made some profitable moves to playing for the best clubs in the world that include Manchester United and Real Madrid.
In his very illustrious 17-year-old career, he has also won a total of five Ballon d’Or Awards.
Apart from his on-field performances, Ronaldo is also one of the most popular sportspersons in the world and the most followed sportsperson on social media, with an estimated 222 million followers on Instagram currently. Earlier in January this year, he became the first person ever to have amassed over 200 million followers on Instagram.
He also has many lucrative brand endorsement deals, which include a lifetime deal with Nike that he signed in 2016. This makes him the only sportsperson after Micheal Jordan and LeBron James to have signed such a deal. He also owns a lifestyle brand called CR7, an amalgamation of his initials and his jersey number, which is known to sell shoes, fragrances, and denim wear, among other things.
Ronaldo’s arch rival, Lionel Messi of Barcelona is expected to join the club next year.
Only two other athletes belong to the club – iconic golf player Tiger Woods, who became the first ever billionaire sportsperson way back in 2009, and fighter Floyd Mayweather Jr., who joined the club in 2017.
Isn’t this record set by Ronaldo absolutely amazing? Do let us know your views on this in the comments section below?
1
