CELEBRITY
RONALDO IS FOOTBALL’S FIRST BILLION-DOLLAR PLAYER
After making US$105 million (S$147 million) over the past year, Cristiano Ronaldo is now football’s first billion-dollar man.
The Portuguese broke yet another record when he totalled more than US$1 billion in earnings over the course of his 18-year playing career, reported Forbes magazine.
Of that amount, US$650 million were made through football and the rest were from all his endorsement deals off the pitch.
The Juventus forward is also expected to reach US$765 million in his playing career salary when his current contract ends in June 2022.
“Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest players of all time, in the world’s most popular sport, in an era when football has never been so rich,” said Sporting Intelligence’s Nick Harris, whose Global Sports Salaries Survey ranks teams worldwide based on total salary expense.
“He’s box office.”
Ronaldo, 35, is also only the third athlete to break the billion-dollar mark while still active, joining 15-time golf Major champion Tiger Woods and champion boxer Floyd Mayweather on that list.
Woods, 44, achieved that feat in 2009 alongside a long-term endorsement deal with Nike, while Mayweather, 43, did it in 2017 with most of his income coming from a cut of pay-per-view revenue for his boxing matches.
According to Forbes, Ronaldo earned a pre-tax total of US$105 million over the last 12 months and is the second-highest-paid athlete this year, behind only tennis great Roger Federer (US$106 million).
Ronaldo is also the most followed athlete on social media with 222 million Instagram followers. He is the third athlete to sign a lifetime deal with Nike, joining basketball stars Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
Barcelona’s Lionel Messi – Ronaldo’s long-time rival – started playing at the senior level in 2005, three years after Ronaldo, and is poised to also surpass the US$1 billion mark in total earnings as soon as next year.
The Argentinian, who turns 33 on June 24, has amassed US$605 million in salary throughout his playing career, not inclusive of endorsements, and had earned US$104 million over the past year.
Ronaldo’s record is a new high for team sport, considering that few team athletes besides Messi have come near those figures.
The closest was former New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez. He retired in 2016 after 22 years in Major League Baseball having earned US$480 million in salary and around US$35 million in endorsements, noted a Fox Business article published in January.
Retired English footballer David Beckham made only half of Ronaldo’s earnings, ending his 21-year career with a total income of US$500 million, half of which came from endorsements.
– The Straits Times
Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first footballer to reach billionaire status, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which has valued the Portugal great’s net worth at an estimated $1.4 billion.
The 40-year-old striker’s financial ascent comes after he signed a new contract with Saudi side Al-Nassr in June reportedly worth more than $400 million.
Bloomberg said that Ronaldo earned more than $550 million in salary between 2002 and 2023, supplemented by a decade-long Nike deal worth nearly $18 million annually, and lucrative endorsements with Armani, Castrol and others that added more than $175 million to his fortune.
Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr from Manchester United in 2023 had already made him the highest-paid player in football history, with an annual salary of 177 million pounds ($237.52 million), plus bonuses and a reported 15% share in his Saudi Arabia club.
Argentina and Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi has earned more than $600 million in pre-tax salary during his career.
Ronaldo’s billionaire status places him among a rare group of athletes that includes basketball greats Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and LeBron James, golfer Tiger Woods and tennis player Roger Federer.
Ronaldo suggested he is not considering retirement any time soon.
“I still have a passion for this,” he said at the Portugal Football Globes gala on Tuesday. “My family says it’s time to quit and they ask me why I want to score 1000 goals if I’ve already scored 900-something. But I don’t think that way inside.
“I’m still producing good things, I’m helping my club and the national team. Why not continue? I am sure that when I finish I will leave full because I gave everything of myself. I know I don’t have many years left to play, but the few I have left, I have to enjoy them to the fullest.”
-Reuters
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Former England soccer captain David Beckham and actor Gary Oldman were knighted in King Charles’ annual birthday honours list on Saturday, while sculptor Antony Gormley was made a Companion of Honour.
Beckham, 50, joined Manchester United as a trainee in 1993, going on to make almost 400 appearances for the club where he won a string of titles and cups.
He subsequently played for Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, and Inter Milan, as well as captaining his country 58 times and making 115 appearances.
His marriage to fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham in 1999 cemented a celebrity status which went far beyond his sporting exploits.
Oldman, 67, started his career on the stage, where he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, before rising to prominence in film. He won the best actor Oscar for playing Winston Churchill in the 2017 drama “Darkest Hour”.
He also had roles in the “Dark Knight Trilogy” and the “Harry Potter” movie series and more recently starred in the TV spy drama “Slow Horses”.
Other famous names receiving honours included damehoods for musical theatre star Elaine Paige, novelist Pat Barker and ceramics maker Emma Bridgewater.
Roger Daltrey, lead singer of rock band the Who and a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, received a knighthood for services to charity.
More than 1,200 people received honours for their achievements, with a particular focus on those who had given their time to public service, the government said.
King Charles’ official birthday will be celebrated with the annual “Trooping the Colour” military parade in London on Saturday. His actual birthday is on November 14
-Reuters
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One of three judges in Diego Maradona’s closely scrutinized homicide trial in Argentina resigned on Tuesday amid a scandal triggered by the alleged filming of an unauthorised documentary, bringing uncertainty to the future of legal proceedings.
The high-profile trial over the death of soccer star Maradona began on March 11 in the South American country where the World Cup winner is still revered.
-Reuters
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