Inside Ronaldo's business empire: How he boasts hotel chain & media company

Cristiano Ronaldo has raked in a fortune during a legendary playing career which has included spells at Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus, before his current spell in Saudi Arabia with Al-Nassr.

Ronaldo's decision to move to the Saudi Pro League club at the start of the 2023 reportedly nets him a staggering £173m-per-year, bolstering his earnings further.

The 38-year-old has been known for diversifying his income with several business investments, which has become an expansive portfolio.

Ronaldo's business interests appears to only be growing as he enters the twilight of his playing career, which will ensure the Portugal legend has plenty to keep his hands full when he eventually decides to hang up his boots.

His latest investment came last month when Ronaldo was listed among a group of investors who took over the Portuguese media company Cofina.

Ronaldo was one of 11 investors named in the deal, which saw Cofina sold to Expressao Livre II, with the deal reportedly worth an estimated €56.8m (£49.4m).

The Portuguese media giants include Correio da Manha, the most circulated newspaper in the country, who sell around 110,000 copies sold per day.

The sports daily Record, the free newspaper Destak and business paper Jornal de Negocios are also published by Cofina, while the company owns the television channel cmTV and a series of magazines.

Ronaldo's latest enterprise was welcomed by Luis Santana, Cofina Media chief executive, who was listed among the investors in a management buyout.

'To count on Cristiano Ronaldo, the best footballer ever, an exceptional athlete who shares the values of demand, rigor, hard work and resilience, as an investor is naturally a great source of satisfaction for the team,' Santana said earlier this year.

Reports in Portugal have claimed Ronaldo will hold between 20-30 per cent of the company's shares.

Eyebrows may have been raised over Ronaldo's involvement given his previous clashes with Cofina-owned media, with Spanish newspaper AS reporting he had previously sued the company on 11 different occasions.

One such occasion saw him take Cofina to court over alleged privacy violations following a story about the birth of his eldest son.

Ronaldo also refused to answer a question during a press conference in 2014, after being angered by Correio da Manha suggesting he was a bad influence in Portugal's national team.

'I have no respect for that newspaper because it is constantly inventing news, inventing controversies, inventing a bad relationship, a bad atmosphere in the national team,' Ronaldo had said.

'It has been going on since I started in the national team, constantly attacking the national team.'

Another famous incident saw Ronaldo throw a CMTV reporter's microphone into a lake during Euro 2016 after reacting badly to a question.

If the five-time Ballon d'Or winner's investment did not signal he had put those clashes in the past, his decision to send all company employees an additional €1,250 would have done.

A company-wide email said the action was to show 'gratitude to all those who are part of this great company and who sweat their shirts every day for it', as reported by Okdiario.

It is not Ronaldo’s first entry into the media landscape after he took majority ownership of the digital agency Thing Pink in 2017, with the company quickly rebranded to 7EGEND.

The company says it focuses on delivering strategies, products, and solutions in the sports industry. Major European clubs Porto and Valencia are among 7EGEND’s clients, along with the Portuguese Football Federation.

7EGEND also looks after Ronaldo’s platform CR7 Fitness Crunch, which claims to link sport, fitness and health, supporting his own chain of gyms.

Another of Ronaldo's business ventures has faced scrutiny in recent months. The Insparya Medical Clinic hair transplant clinics he co-owns are reportedly being probed by The Tax Agency in Spain.

Spanish reports have claimed a file has been opened against the hair transplant clinics after they issued several invoices without VAT to hundreds of clients between 2019 and 2021.

The business claim in defence that alopecia 'is a disease' and therefore 'medical services of diagnosis, prevention, treatment and cure' are exempt from VAT.

However, the Treasury in Spain have reportedly been claiming that instead transplants are 'purely for aesthetic purposes' and therefore their prices must include VAT, which is currently 21 per cent in Spain.

The Tax Agency also asked the company to justify various expenses they had deducted in relation to hotels, meals and trips, along with those invoices without VAT.

The clinics have handed responsibility over the process to lawyers but insist they have complied with all legislation and regulations.

Insparya have 12 clinics in total with Barcelona and Madrid among the locations in Spain, as well as boasting locations in Portugal and Milan.

Ronaldo also went into business with the Madeira based Pestana Group in 2015, which is owned by millionaire Dionisio Pestana and founded by his dad Manuel.

The tourism and leisure group also boasted a series of hotels across Portugal but joined forces with Ronaldo in a 50/50 partnership to open a chain under his CR7 brand.

Five have been established to date with Lisbon and Funchal the two Portuguese locations of CR7 hotels, while the chain also includes a hotel at Times Square in New York, as well as Madrid and Marrakech.

'The first Pestana CR7 had to be in Funchal - my city that also is considered the best island by the World Travel Awards,' Ronaldo said at the 2016 unveiling of his first hotel.

'It is a great pride for me - the opening of this my first hotel. It marks my entrance into a completely new area. This new project is going to be a huge success in the four corners of the world.'

Unsurprisingly the boutique hotels have promised luxury, with the Funchal hotel claiming its guests will enjoy the lifestyle they deserve.

The hotel features a pink-coloured infinity pool, gym, sauna and outdoor hot tub, while guests receive free admission to the Cristiano Ronaldo museum. Ronaldo is also claimed to have designed training sessions at the hotel's open air gym.

Unsurprisingly, sport is billed as a major theme of each of the CR7 hotels, while the rooms in the New York location are influenced by the colours and art of Portugal.

MailOnline revealed earlier this year the the sixth hotel in Paris is expected to open in 2027 following delays.

The £53million four-star hotel, on the left bank of the River Seine near the Austerlitz train station, was originally meant to open in 2021.

Building work has only belatedly started this year on the hotel which is planned to feature 210 rooms, a rooftop bar and a pool with panoramic views over the French capital.

'It makes perfect sense for the Pestana CR7 brand to be implanted in Paris, one of the most visited cities in the world,' Ronaldo said when announcing the hotel.

'It's a destination that combines the perfect match of elegance and sophistication of the brand.'

The hotel business builds on his existing property empire, with the football legend having had a £17million home built on the Portuguese Riviera. The house sits on a large plot of land in Quinta da Marinha, Cascais, on the west coast of Portugal.

His property empire also includes a seven-storey apartment block in Funchal, where his mother Dolores, 66, and brother Hugo live.

He also owns a villa in Turin, a £4.8m mansion on a gated fortress estate called La Finca near Madrid, and a stunning Marbella holiday home.

In 2020 during the Covid pandemic Ronaldo also splashed out on the most expensive flat ever sold in Lisbon, paying £6.5m for a state-of-the-art 3,100-square foot pad in Avenida da Liberdade.

His wide-ranging CR7 lifestyle brand also includes CR7 Eyewear, CR7 Footwear, CR7 Underwear and CR7 Fragrances. The brand was reportedly unaffected by the decision to close the CR7 store in Madeira at the last of last year.

Ronaldo also boasts a lifetime contract with US sportswear giant Nike, one of only three athletes to have received the privilege.

Given his legendary status, Ronaldo's profile will remain attractive to companies long into his eventual retirement, with the star having already endorsed major brands such as Armani, Clear, Castrol, Tag Heuer, Egyptian Steel, Herbalife, Italia Independent and PokerStars.

More recent tie-ups include LiveScore, MEO, ZujuGP, Uniecampus, and Therabody.

With Ronaldo estimated by Forbes to have been paid $260m (£208m) this year it seems unlikely that his business investments will stop any time soon.