Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo has beaten his counterpart Lionel Messi off-the-field to become the first athlete in football history to earn one billion dollars. Ronaldo’s earnings grossed 105 million dollars before taxes and fees in the previous year helping him grab the fourth spot in Forbes Celebrity 100.
The Portugal striker is the third athlete to cross the one billion mark and first to do it in a team sport. Before him, Golf legend Tiger Woods and boxer Floyd Mayweather achieved the feat. Woods made the cut on the back of his endorsement deal with Nike whereas Mayweather had his income from a cut of pay-per-view sales for his boxing matches.
As per the projections, the 35-year-old is expected to make 765 million dollars in salary by the end of his career which is 115 million dollars more than what he has made till now.
On the other hand, Messi has made a total of 605 million dollars in salaries since his senior debut in 2005 for Barcelona.
Ronaldo is also the most followed athlete on social media with 222.4 million followers on Instagram, 85.3 million followers on Twitter and 112 million on Facebook.
Ronaldo returned to training ahead of Italian Serie A restart amidst coronavirus outbreak worldwide.
Mosanya
1812
From cleaning the streets to becoming a billionaire, Hardwork pays off!! Congrats Cristaino Ronaldo
SH3012
788
The "R" In Ronaldo Stands For Rich😁
Mosanya
638
I still remember when he was cleaning the road with he's mom and now he's billionaire. That is called SUCCESS my friend..
Nadan7
378
Ronaldo can afford to use money as his toilet paper for dozens of years 🧻 💴💴
mzeereal
289
From grass to grace.. He moved from no one to the evergreen one.. Never underestimate yourself in achieving any of your dreams
CR7MAR12
138
Hardwork really pays off... Congrats CR7.... Congrats Messi as well.... We enjoy both u.... God bless y'all
Sayandeepboss
9
he has really been lucky in his life because not every hardworking person make it like this, you need luck to accomplish hard work and cr7 has been lucky enough to make it this far.
Then I guess every big footballer is lucky one way or another... Even Messi, Ronaldinho...whoever