With huge revenues, a colossal audience on social media, sponsors queuing up, and his brand on products from hotels to underwear, Cristiano Ronaldo has long been more than just a football player.<\/p>\n
But CR7\u2019s global brand may be tarnished by an accusation of rape in the United States, a complaint that dates back to 2009.<\/p>\n
Ronaldo, \u201cis truly a business offering a product, a service and a digital arm,\u201d Jean-Philippe Danglade, author of \u201cMarketing and Celebrities\u201d, told AFP, pointing out that, in the player\u2019s native Madeira there is a Ronaldo museum and airport named after him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of the collective imagination, it\u2019s really impressive.\u201d Forbes magazine estimated that Ronaldo made $108 million in 2017: $61 million in salary and $47 million from endorsements. While that\u2019s a jump in $15 million from the previous year, Ronaldo still dropped from first place to third.<\/p>\n
Ronaldo\u2019s great rival Lionel Messi moved to second, on $111 million, after signing a new contract at Barcelona that increased his salary from an estimated $50 million a year to a reported $86 million.<\/p>\n
Boxer Floyd Mayweather soared into first place with $275 million, almost all of which came from a single bout against mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor.<\/p>\n
At 33, Ronaldo reportedly accepted a slight wage cut in the summer when he moved from Real Madrid to Juventus, signing a contract worth a reported 30-31 million euros a year after tax.<\/p>\n
Forbes calculated that this represents a drop in gross salary from the $66 million he would have earned, with bonuses, at Real, to $64 million at Juventus, where his contract reportedly includes no incentives and is entirely guaranteed.<\/p>\n
Tax is another sensitive topic for Ronaldo, who agreed in June to pay 16.7 million euros in a legal settlement after he was caught neglecting to pay some Spanish taxes.<\/p>\n
It is a template that has also worked for former Nike client Roger Federer, who is the top sponsorship earner on the Forbes list, and David Beckham.<\/p>\n
Since the opening of his first underwear shop \u201cCR7\u201d in 2006 on Madeira, the man with perfect abs, who models his briefs in ads, has expanded the range with jeans, shoes and accessories.<\/p>\n
At the end of 2015, he joined the hotel group Pestana to build five hotels under the name \u201cCR7\u201d.<\/p>\n
On arriving in Turin this summer, Ronaldo launched a new \u201cCR7 Underwear\u201d line with Italian garment company Yamamay.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I\u2019m rich, I\u2019m beautiful, I\u2019m a great player, people are jealous of me,\u201d Ronaldo said in 2011.<\/p>\n
For the sponsors, the five-time Ballon d\u2019Or and top scorer in Champions League history, with 120 goals, is an attractive brand.<\/p>\n
His 330 million total social media followers, more than any other sportsman, also helps draw sponsors.<\/p>\n
Among his blue-chip backers have included French telecommunications company SFR, Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer, game makers Konami and EA Sports, oil manufacturer Castrol and Emirates airline.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis portfolio is very well-balanced with a dozen sectors and very different and complementary activities,\u201d said Danglade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With huge revenues, a colossal audience on social media, sponsors queuing up, and his brand on products from hotels to underwear, Cristiano Ronaldo has long been more than just a football player. But CR7\u2019s global brand may be tarnished by an accusation of rape in the United States, a complaint that dates back to 2009. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43835,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43833\/revisions\/43835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}