Cristiano Ronaldo: Football's first billionaire player

Summary

Good Bad Billionaire – Cristiano Ronaldo: Football’s First Billionaire Player

Podcast: Good Bad Billionaire, BBC World Service
Hosts: Simon Jack (BBC Business Editor) and Zing Tsjeng (Journalist, Author)
Date: June 15, 2026
Episode Focus: How Cristiano Ronaldo became the world’s first billionaire footballer, his legacy, controversies, and the business of football megastars.

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the rise, riches, and reputation of Cristiano Ronaldo, examining his transformation from a poverty-stricken childhood on Madeira to becoming the world’s first billionaire football player. Hosts Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng trace Ronaldo’s career, wealth-building moves, off-field controversies, and cultural legacy. As with every episode, they assess whether Ronaldo is “good, bad, or just another billionaire,” scoring him on wealth, controversy, power, and legacy before inviting listeners to share their verdict.

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Key Discussion Points & Timeline

1. The Defining Traits: Dedication & Obsession

[02:21]

• Simon Jack: Ronaldo’s path to billionaire status is inseparable from “dedication, obsession, some would say, that will make him a billionaire.”

2. Rags to Riches: Early Life in Madeira

[04:27–07:22]

• Zing: Born 1985, Madeira, Ronaldo grew up in poverty. His mother, Dolores, was a cook/cleaner and considered abortion due to dire finances.
• Notable quote:
  • Ronaldo: “I was brought up with nothing. I had no toys, no Christmas presents. I shared a room with my brother and two sisters ... but we were happy.” (05:04)
• Childhood marked by hunger (“waiting outside McDonald’s for leftovers”), his father’s alcoholism, and being mocked for his accent when moving to Lisbon.

3. Early Football Career & Emotional Challenges

[05:20–07:22]

• Passionate about football from a young age, started at Andorinha at 7, transferred for “20 balls and equipment”.
• Nicknamed “cry baby” because of his on-pitch tantrums.
• Expelled from school at 14 for throwing a chair at a teacher who mocked his family’s poverty.
• Overcame health crisis (tachycardia) at 15, had heart surgery, but quickly returned to training.

4. Breakthrough & the Business of Football

[08:28–12:15]

• At Sporting CP, noticed by international managers. Arsenal nearly signed him, scuppered by “super-agent” Jorge Mendes.
• Simon: “With Jorge, you always found yourself in a bidding war ... ultimately to his benefit.”
• Joins Manchester United at 18, first millionaire status probably reached by age 20.

5. Manchester United & the Millionaire Years

[16:34–22:29]

• Rapid progression: becomes Premier League’s most dominant player, wins Champions League and Ballon d’Or in 2008.
• Salary surpasses £6 million/year (~£120k/week).
• Off the pitch, endorsements skyrocket income. Nike deal grows from hundreds of thousands to £9 million by 2009, alongside Castrol, Coca-Cola, Suzuki, FIFA, etc.
• Ronaldo’s “showboating” and off-pitch lifestyle (e.g., crash of £300k Ferrari) generate headlines and tension.

6. Real Madrid: The Mega Contracts & Brand Building

[22:29–28:49]

• Signed by Real Madrid in 2009 for then-record €93 million transfer fee; €11 million/year salary.
• Clubs compete for image rights; Ronaldo leverages this for huge sponsorship and brand deals.
• Rivalry with Messi at Barcelona fuels international attention. Ronaldo courts US/Latin markets, embraces celebrity lifestyle with high-profile relationships and extravagant spending.
• Launches “CR7” brand: underwear, shirts, footwear, fragrances, hotels, hair transplant clinics.

7. Lifetime Nike Deal & Social Media Domination

[29:22–31:35]

• Becomes one of only three athletes (with LeBron James, Michael Jordan) to land a Nike lifetime deal – potentially worth over $1 billion. Annual fees & bonuses tied to performance.
• Zing: "Over 329 posts across his social media platforms, he generated just under $500 million in value for [Nike].” (30:02)
• Achieves record social media following: “First person with half a billion followers” on Instagram, now up to 675 million. (30:37)

8. Juventus, Decline in Europe, and Saudi Arabia’s Mega Deal

[31:08–39:03]

• Moves to Juventus in 2018 (€112 million), promises Champions League title—doesn’t deliver. His brand power brings huge increases in shirt sales and social media for the club.
• Returns to Man Utd in 2021 (age 36), but struggles both on the pitch and off, including personal tragedies and ongoing legal battles.
• In 2023, moves to Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia, reportedly earning $200 million/year (tax-free), plus perks (signing bonus, private jet, equity stake)—later doubled and extended to $400 million/year and a 15% club equity stake.

9. Controversies

[34:06–45:24]

• Major legal battle: rape allegation (Las Vegas, 2009), denied by Ronaldo, not proven in court, civil case dismissed.
• Tax evasion: Fined €19 million in 2018, 23-month suspended sentence for avoiding Spanish tax via overseas shell companies.
• Regularly accused of arrogance, theatrics, selfishness on the pitch; famous quote:
  • Ronaldo: “If God can’t please everyone, I won’t either.” (44:42)
• Criticized for accepting Saudi deal amid sportswashing and human rights concerns.

10. Wealth, Spending, and Legacy

[41:34–47:33]

• Simon: "He scores quite highly [on spending]." Noted for a lavish lifestyle: mansions worldwide, Gulfstream jet, luxury cars, $5 million engagement ring, gifting his agent a Greek island.
• Rags-to-riches story: from tiny shared room in Madeira to global icon with his name on an international airport.
• Legacy: record goalscorer, five-time Ballon d’Or winner, and example of maximizing both talent and global celebrity—“the sky is the limit” for earning in modern football.

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Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• [05:04] Ronaldo on childhood poverty:
  "I was brought up with nothing. I had no toys, no Christmas presents. I shared a room with my brother and two sisters ... but we were happy."
• [18:18] Ronaldo’s belief in himself:
  “I started to believe I was the best.”
• [29:22] On Nike deal:
  “A lifetime deal ... could be worth more than a billion dollars over time.”
• [30:02] Zing on social media brand value:
  “Over 329 posts ... nearly $500 million in value for [Nike].”
• [44:42] Ronaldo on his public perception:
  “If God can’t please everyone, I won’t either.”
• [46:45] Zing on Ronaldo’s legacy:
  “His own hometown in Madeira changed the name of his airport to Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport.”
• [47:33] Simon on application vs. talent:
  "No one thinks he's as talented as Lionel Messi, but everyone thinks he worked harder than anyone else to maximize his talent."

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Scorecard & Verdict (with Timestamps)

Wealth [41:34 – 43:11]

• Rags to riches: 8/10 from both hosts for massive self-made fortune and lavish spending.

Controversy [43:23 – 45:24]

• Criminal and civil legal battles, tax evasion, arrogant persona, Saudi move: 7/10 (“a buffet of controversy”).

Power [45:24 – 46:41]

• On-field and team influence: 6/10 (Simon), 5/10 (Zing). Unparalleled power in sport, less so outside.

Legacy [46:41 – 47:33]

• Historic scoring records, cultural impact, but divisive figure: both hosts give 8/10.

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Final Reflections

• Application over talent: Ronaldo is lauded for outworking peers, achieving more via drive than raw talent alone.
• Technique & global influence: CR7 is a case study in the monetization of sporting fame—tapping endorsements, social media, and self-branding to a degree few athletes have ever matched.
• Controversial icon: His ego, scandals, and “CR7 show” create divergent responses: adored, resented, and always newsworthy.
• Lasting question:
  “Is he good, bad, or just another billionaire?”
  Listeners are invited to decide and share their thoughts with the show.

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For Listeners

Next episode tease: MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), “the Mozart of the attention economy.”
Contact: Email comments to [e-mail] or WhatsApp [phone].

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This summary covers the substance, personalities, key events and insights from the Cristiano Ronaldo episode of Good Bad Billionaire, omitting all commercial breaks and non-content segments.

Transcript

[Simon Jack]

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk.

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[Zing Singh]

Host unforgettable backyard barbecues with savings from Whole Foods Market. Get the good times going with made in house chicken or pork sausages and ready to cook kebabs for hassle free flavor. Grab tasty flatbreads and their new balsamic chicken salad in the prepared foods department. Keep things fresh with organic red cherries, strawberries and peaches at their peak. And stock up on bug sprays and sun care. Must haves make your summer sizzle at Whole Foods Market.

[Simon Jack]

It's 2009. A cold January morning. A 23 year old grips the wheel of a two day old $300,000 Ferra. Overhead airplanes are coming into land at Manchester Airport.

[Zing Singh]

He zooms down into a tunnel and then he smashes into the wall. The front of his sports car crumples and the windscreen smashes.

[Simon Jack]

He gets out of the car, his tall body ripped with muscles. The car is totaled, but he's okay. With barely a hair out of place on his perfectly coiffed head, he jumps

[Zing Singh]

into a Bentley that was following right behind him. There's no time to lose. He has to be on the pitch

[Simon Jack]

within the hour because this footballer never misses training. And it's his dedication, obsession, some would say, that will make him a billionaire.

[Zing Singh]

Welcome to Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Every episode we pick a billionaire and we find out how they made their money.

[Simon Jack]

We take them from zero to their first million and then from a million onto a billion.

[Zing Singh]

My name is Zing Singh and I'm a Journalist, author and podcaster.

[Simon Jack]

And I'm Simon Jack. I'm the BBC's business editor.

[Zing Singh]

And on this episode, we've got a billionaire who is actually the subject of several requests from listeners.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, a few of you have requested this one, including Mark, who emailed to say, I just wanted to say how much I enjoy listening to the podcast. Thank you, Mark. It's consistently interesting, well researched, and very engaging. As a suggestion for a future episode, I'd love to hear the story of Cristiano Ronaldo. He's a slightly different kind of billionaire, a genuine rags to riches story. Be fascinating to see him through the good, bad or just another billionaire lens. He says, I really think it will be kind of tough. Interesting.

[Zing Singh]

Well, if you're a football fan, whether he's good or bad probably depends on whether he's playing for your side or not. Yeah, I mean, the closest I can come to describing it as someone who doesn't watch tons of football is like, it's like watching someone dance ballet next to someone who can't dance at all.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, no, he's. He had very fleet of foot, for sure. He's got dozens of world records, including the most goals scored in international football, 968 at the time of recording, and the most international caps, 226 for his home country of Portugal.

[Zing Singh]

Now 41 years old, he was declared a billionaire just last year, worth $1.4 billion.

[Simon Jack]

Now, that puts him in a very elite club of billionaire athletes, which you can actually count on your fingers. By many metrics, he's the most famous athlete, some would say, in the world. I'm sure Lionel Messi might have something to say about that.

[Zing Singh]

Well, Ronaldo is also regularly described as a arrogant, as narcissistic, and his behavior both on and off the pitch is very rarely out of the headline. So let's try to answer Mark's question. And to do that, we'll have to go back to the beginning of Ronaldo's story.

[Simon Jack]

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born in 1985 in Madeira, small Portuguese island out in the Atlantic Ocean. His mother, Dolores, was a cook and a cleaner. His father, Denis, worked as a municipal gardener.

[Zing Singh]

Dennis had been a soldier at war, and he struggled with depression and alcoholism. Ronaldo was their fourth child, and he was an accident. His mother actually considered having an abortion, and she's Catholic and very religious, which just goes to show that they were in pretty dire straits at the time. He was raised in poverty, and Ronaldo has said, I was brought up with Nothing. I had no toys, no Christmas presents. I shared a room with my brother and two sisters, and my parents slept in the other. And him and his siblings would apparently often wait outside a local McDonald's late at night when hungry, hoping the workers might sneak them leftover Big Macs. But he said it wasn't a bad childhood. He said it was all we knew. Everyone around us lived the same way, and we were happy.

[Simon Jack]

There was a football connection. His father worked part time as a kit man at the local club Andorina, and he asked a player there to be Ronaldo's godfather. Now, this godfather said that from a young age, Ronaldo played football constantly. When the other kids were studying, he put his studies on the back seat in order to play football. He also bought him a toy car one Christmas. But Ronaldo kicked up a fuss because he wanted a ball.

[Zing Singh]

At the age of seven, Ronaldo started playing for Andorinha. He wore number seven on his jersey for his first match, and he scored a goal in the team's 40 victory. And within a year, he'd won his very first individual trophy at a children's tournament, where he was elected the best player. But he also, and this will be familiar to anybody who's followed Ronaldo's career, struggled with his emotions on the pitch. His mother, Dolores, said as a boy, he would get angry and cry easily if the other boys didn't pass him the ball, or because they did not play as he wanted, they called him cruel Cry baby. Yeah, a nickname that's kind of dogged him through his career somewhat.

[Simon Jack]

The word brat comes to mind.

[Zing Singh]

Exactly. And we'll get into that.

[Simon Jack]

In 1995, age 9, he was transferred to Madeira's biggest club, Nacional, who paid for the transfer with 20 balls and equipment for the children's team. Now, a couple of years later, he went on a three day trial with top Portuguese club Sporting CP. He impressed them. They paid around €2,000 to sign him to their youth academy. This meant just on the cusp of becoming a teenager, he moved from Madeira, which is obviously that island out there, to just outside Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.

[Zing Singh]

I think 20 balls and a bunch

[Simon Jack]

of children's sports equipment is probably pretty good deal. The cheapest transfer for Ronaldo, Saudi Arabian club at the end of his career. Wish they could have got it for that kind of money.

[Zing Singh]

Well, Ronaldo had never left Madeira before, and he was on his own and incredibly homesick. If you visited Madeira, which I have, it's a small island, you know, I'm not surprised he felt really longing for home. And the other boys also mocked his Madeiran accent. He described this as the hardest period of his life. Dolores has said she felt like she was abandoning him, but it was for good reason. And, you know, he's almost a teenager. Must have been really hard.

[Simon Jack]

It's quite interesting because I knew some people from Madeira and there's quite a different accent from Portuguese, so he would have stuck out, I think, in Lisbon. He would have been seen as a sort of hick from outside, whatever. Plus he's very young, plus, you know, he's emotional, so it must have been pretty tough. Age 14, he was expelled from school after he threw a chair at the teacher because, in his words, he disrespected me. It's reported the teacher had made a comment about his family's poverty. Dolores eventually flew from Madeira to help look after him, and they agreed that he should leave education instead, just pursue football full time.

[Zing Singh]

Ronaldo said that he felt he had potential, but he says, I thought I was maybe good enough at the time to play semi professionally. And at the age of 15, he was very nearly forced to retire from the sport, who was diagnosed with something called tachycardia. His heart beat irregularly and even when it was resting, it beat too fast. And to save his career, he had to undergo heart surgery. And just a few days after the operating table, he was back training. And so by 2002, by the age of 17, he was promoted from the youth squad to the main team in a Champions League qualifying match against Inter Milan.

[Simon Jack]

That's amazing. Champions League is obviously the top tier of European football. Inter Milan, legendary team. So playing in that tournament, it doesn't get higher level than that. But this is about the money, right? So what is he earning? There are wildly different accounts of how much he was earning at Sporting, from as low as €20,000, all the way up to a million euros. Now. A million seems pretty high for a new player. And either way, this is pre tax, so he's not a millionaire yet. But he was being noticed as a rare talent and international managers started looking for him, started courting him, basically.

[Zing Singh]

Liverpool and Arsenal had scouts in Portugal at his games every week. And Arsenal's manager, Arsene Wenger, tried to woo him, flying him, his mum, his agent, to London. And there was a fee of £8 million agreed. But then it completely unraveled. Ronaldo had been recently working with his agent, Jorge Mendes, who would go on to be described as a super agent.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, back then he was a former nightclub owner and Semi professional footballer who'd been working with Portuguese players. According to someone with inside knowledge, the Arsenal deal fell apart because it was classic Mendes. With Jorge, you always found yourself in a bidding war which he promoted and ultimately was to his benefit. It's very interesting when big money started coming into football 20, 30 years ago, the role of the agent is absolutely super important because every time they move club, they get paid a percentage. And if you've got some of the players like him on your books, these super agents can make as much money or even more than the players them.

[Zing Singh]

And Wenger wasn't very happy about this deal, was he?

[Simon Jack]

No, Arsene Wenger was pretty unhappy, to say the least. He never signed another player from Jorge Mendes, so he, you know, didn't do himself much favors on repeat business there. But he did describe on losing out on Ronaldo as my biggest regret. And that's, you know, given a whole career that Wenger had, they're saying something.

[Zing Singh]

Instead, Ronaldo signed with Manchester United. And the signing came a week after a friendly between Sporting and Manu. And the story goes, at the time Ronaldo put in such an amazing performance that Manu's players actually begged their manager, Alex Ferguson to, to sign him to the team. Real Ferdinand remembers. Scalzi Butti and me were all saying, we've got to sign this guy Scalzi Butti.

[Simon Jack]

Everyone's got a Y on the end of their name in footy, haven't they? The truth though, apparently was a little bit different. Alex Ferguson had already convinced Ronaldo that Man U is the place to go to develop into a world class player. And you know, this is, this was a pretty fabulous team at Man U at the time. They were riding high. You had Beckham. The money was probably a draw. The fee that Manchester United paid established Ronaldo as the most expensive teenager in English football. Why was he so valuable? Well, at the time of the signing, Alex Ferguson said he's an extremely talented footballer. A two footed attacker who can play anywhere up front, right, left or through the middle. Classic manager speak. But in terms of the money, the transfer fee was £12 million, just over. But that money doesn't go to Ronaldo.

[Zing Singh]

No, it doesn't. So for those who aren't in the know, this is the basics of how football transfers work. So players sign contracts with clubs for a fixed term. If a player transfers before their contract expires, the new club pays compensation to the old one. So they pay them off. The player, the agent, the club, or the lawyers, of which there are many they thrash out a new contract including their salary and bonuses such as a signing on bonus, loyalty bonus and the player the agent and everyone will also share lump payment for facilitating this move. So the new club will then pay the player their wages and we don't

[Simon Jack]

know all the details but it was a five year contract. His salary was more than one and a half million a year within days. Private jet flew Ronaldo to Manchester and he said it was the first time I'd ever been on an airplane. I don't believe that because how would he have got from Madeira to Lisbon?

[Zing Singh]

Maybe, maybe he means a private jet. Who knows?

[Simon Jack]

Anyway, he was still 18 years old only and was seen holding Dolores hand, his mum as he crossed the street in Manchester. Lovely.

[Zing Singh]

So when can we say Ronaldo becomes a millionaire on a 1 1/2 million pound salary? He would have taken home just under 900k after tax, minus Jorge's agent fees which will sit somewhere between 5 to 10% and minus his living expenses and casual spending. We will discuss this later. It is probably safe to say that within a couple of years at Manchester United. So around the age of 20, Ronaldo will have a million in the bank. So he's officially a millionaire.

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[Zing Singh]

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[Zing Singh]

So just as Ronaldo became a millionaire, his father actually died age 53 from liver disease from his alcoholism. Ronaldo said, I cried every day. People say we have money and cars, but we suffered. It frustrates me that he was never able to see my successes. So really sad time for Ronaldo and Alex Ferguson supported him through that time with Ronaldo describing him as a football father. For me the feeling was mutual. Ferguson's written in his autobiography, Cristiano Ronaldo was the most gifted player I managed. He surpassed all the other great ones I coached at United, and I had many.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, I wonder how those people feel. How do the Beckhams, the Rooneys, the Roy Keanes feel. Feel that Ronaldo, in the eyes of Alex Ferguson, Sir Alex Ferguson, was considered the best. He's quite tall for the kind of player who plays in those kind of positions. He's six foot two. When he arrived, he had spots and braces, but he started working on the body, which he's kind of famous for now. So he started working with Manu's power development coach, who said that in the first couple of weeks, Cristiano came to me and said he wanted to become the best player in the world. He wanted to be better than everyone. One thing that was really interesting about, I remember Wayne Rooney talking about him, saying that his work ethic and he would go be first at training, last to leave. So even though he was the most talented, well, some people will say that Messi was the more natural talent, but Ronaldo worked the hardest, so he really applied himself. And the biggest change, this is interesting, came from brain cognition. His coach said, he built his brain as much as his back and biceps. He went from being easily manipulated, pushed around, wound up by opponents, to having arguably the steeliest mindset in football. Football is the actual quote there. So that's interesting.

[Zing Singh]

Well, just off the back of all this training, Ronaldo soon became the Premier League's most dominant player. And he also knew it. He said, I started to believe I was the best. In the 2007-2008 season, he scored 42 goals for Man U, helping them win the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League, AKA the European Double. And he won his first Ballon d' or trophy, a prestigious award which is given to the best footballer in the world.

[Simon Jack]

It's the creme de la creme. It's something that people really want to win in a big way. And his salary started reflecting his status on top. He was earning over 6 million a year for playing football. Not bad. That's around 120,000 pounds a week. What I find really interesting is that all our other billionaires, we don't talk about what they make a week. It's a peculiar thing about football is that we always translate it to what they make a week. And that comes from its working class roots as a football game. When basically players say, he's on a tenor a week, he's on five bomb a week, 120 grand a week. I mean, no doubt car salesmen are knocking on your door the whole time.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, I mean, that's a lot of very fancy shops on Regent street you could walk into.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, exactly. But by this point, his salary wasn't his actual. His major earner. So he was getting 12 million from product endorsements. We've talked before, Tiger woods, for example, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, exactly how important Nike has been in making athletes very, very rich. And Ronaldo's sponsorship deal with Nike began in 2000 when he joined Man U. Reportedly worth a few hundred thousand pounds per year then. But by 2009, that was worth around £9 million. 2009, he signed a deal to become the global ambassador for the petrol company Castrol. He had deals with Coca Cola, Suzuki, FIFA, video games, Xerox, Copia, an Indonesian energy drink. I mean, his agents working overtime to get him this money.

[Zing Singh]

He really, I think, at this point in his career was just raking in the sponsorship deals.

[Simon Jack]

Well, and the thing about sports people is their careers are short. Right. If you make it to 35, you're doing really well. So your big earning years are actually quite short. So I don't really blame them for trying to make Haywell the sunshine. Also, you could break your leg at any time.

[Zing Singh]

You could be out of commission. Well, you know, Indonesian energy drinks and Xerox copiers aside, at this point of his career, Ronaldo is a global superstar. And so this. This obviously starts causing tensions within what's essentially a team sport. In his teammate Rio Ferdinand's autobiography, he wrote, the game became the Cristiano Ronaldo show. He was trying to show his skills and nothing was coming off. We lost. And afterwards, the manager absolutely destroyed him. Playing by yourself, who do you think you are? I'm not gonna try and do Alex Bergson's voice for this. When Ferguson substituted him for one game, Ronaldo reacted very badly. The manager publicly admonished him and he told the media, you cannot get everything your own way. And to top it all off, Ronaldo also made headlines when he crashed his 2 day old 300 grand red Ferrari in a tunnel near the Manchester airport. He was uninjured and he caught a lift to practice. But, you know, I'm sure his teammates were not very impressed with that either.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, I remember this was a period when he was doing a lot of showboating on the pitch. Like he had this thing where he would do what they call step overs, which is you look like you're going to take the ball that way and you step over it. It's kind of a dumm, can do lots of these at once and it can end up looking quite ridiculous. And Alex Ferguson's character, being a hard, hard Glaswegian former pub owner, would not have taken kindly to that kind of showboating. Anyway, after six years at the club where they were fantastically successful, and he had become, if not the best player in the world, one of the top two, he was making it very public that he wanted to leave Man U because Manchester United, as illustrious as it is, there is one other club in European football which really stands above them all in terms of success and that Real Madrid. And he got his wish to play there because in 2009, they bought the 24 year old for 93 million euros that at the time was a world record transfer fee. And Real Madrid agreed to pay ronaldo a reported €11 million salary per year. So that's nearly a million euros a month.

[Zing Singh]

So at this point, it's probably worth stepping back and asking the question, how can these football clubs afford these enormous transfer fees and salaries? Well, they make a lot of money. Ticket sales do account for some. The tickets are very expensive, as anyone who's bought a season ticket will know. But they also sell broadcast rights to

[Simon Jack]

their games, which is huge. But sponsorship and merchandising, they also make a lot of money out of that.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, they want to profit off a player's name and his image. So they normally try to negotiate an exclusive right to control how images of a player appears in advertising, in publicity. But because if you're a player, this is where your power is, you're reluctant to give this up because this means giving up big money from sponsorship from, you know, your Adidas, your Nikes. So image rights are really fiercely contested over in contract negotiations. So a deal, deal will be struck maybe 50, 50 split between player and club. Although we don't know what the Ronaldo split with Real Madrid was.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, and also, just don't forget about these video games like FIFA and what have you, the image of that player in that shirt. So clearly the shirt is the intellectual property of the club. The image of the player in that shirt is, you know, so you can see how they fight over this and there's lots of money involved. So that's why image rights become really important. And a player's value to a football club, then it's not just about how good they are on the field. That's the foundation of it. It's about their earning power as a global celebrity. And if you remember, Real Madrid had a great rival. One of the great rivalries in international football is Barcelona versus Real Madrid. And at the same time he was at Real Madrid, Lionel Messi was at Barcelona. So you had these two. And sports fans and people and advertising people and whatever love these kind of dynastic rivalries. It was a perfect combination of factors and influence at the same time. But he was also making headline off the pitch. The night before his Real Madrid deal was confirmed, he was photographed at an LA club with Paris Hilton. I haven't heard from her for a while. What's she up to?

[Zing Singh]

She's currently very invested in the longevity industry, oddly. Yeah, she's got a cryogenic freezer or something in her house.

[Simon Jack]

Oh, really? Okay. A crisis PR consultant said, call me a cynical old publicist, but it's a marriage made in franchise heaven and an act of sublime stuntsmanship. It cannot be a coincidence. He noted Ronaldo had huge appeal to the U.S. american, Latin, important, very lucrative market.

[Zing Singh]

Well, Paris Hilton wasn't the only celebrity Ronaldo was romantically linked to in the tabloids. He was reported to have been seen kissing Kim Kardashian in Madrid. He also dated a supermodel, irina Shayk, from 2010 to 2015. And there are also plenty of other models that he's been linked to. The Playboy image probably doesn't hurt, especially if you're lining up a deal with places like Armani brand. Ronaldo was about being this well dressed, metrosexual, multimillionaire athlete, you know, and the spending was Austin advantageous to keep up with that, we're talking he was spending eight grand a month on clothes. He even told a newspaper. I love this. That Forbes had underestimated his fortunes when he put his wealth at 160 million. Saying that is not correct. On paper, it's actually much closer to 245 million.

[Simon Jack]

That kind of chimes, doesn't it, with the whole, I'm the best on the pitch, da, da, da, da, da, don't underestimate me kind of thing. He did keep one thing very secret, though. The identity of the mother of. Of his child. Now, Cristiano Ronaldo Jr. Of course, was born in 2010. And in agreement with the mother, the baby was raised under his exclusive guardianship. And it's reported that the mother was paid £10 million for full paternity. He said, my son is the most important thing in my life. After that, it's the football that matters to me most. Money comes after that. Anyone who says that is usually already rich.

[Zing Singh]

Well, while he was now a celebrity. Off the pitch, on the pitch, he was becoming a legend. So he won the ballon d' or four more times between 2013 and 2017. He was a star player at Real Madrid. He had a lot of power, a lot of influence. Keeping Ronaldo happy was basically the number one rule at the club. Even something as important as a team's formation was shaped around how he actually wanted to play. And his pay reflected his super status. By 2016, he had become the world's highest paid athlete, according to Forbes. And his contract was worth around 50 million euros a year in salary and bonuses. For instance, he got a seven figure bonus for shooting the winning penalty for the Champions League title.

[Simon Jack]

He was also earning 30 million euros a year in endorsements. He got the Nike contract, of course, TAG Heuer, the watch company, dietary supplements, a poker website. Again, the agent really pulling his weight there. But Ronaldo understood that if he was selling his image, why not own the brand? So in 2013, he launched something called CR7, which is Cristiano Ronaldo and he's number seven. And it began just with men's underwear, Underwear retailing at about $30, but soon went into shirts and footwear. So he was not doing the designing himself. He partnered with a designer and Danish manufacturer. And, of course, there was the obligatory celebrity CR7 fragrances. So really rinsing the brand here as hard as he can.

[Zing Singh]

Well, he also went all out. He spent thousands of pounds having CR7 etched into the windows of his home. Can't imagine what that does to the light you get in there. He emblazoned his sofa tables, plates of CR7. He said it was probably the most extravagant thing I've ever done with, which is big coming from Cristiano Ronaldo. Things really did step up a gear, though, when he opened the CR7 museum in Madeira, a space dedicated to his trophies. I've actually walked outside. I've walked around outside this museum.

[Simon Jack]

Oh, yes, you went, didn't you?

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, I didn't went as in go in, but I did go outside and I saw the statue of Ronaldo. The statue at the museum is not the famous one that had to be taken down because it looks too bad. But I will say the statue in Funchal on the harbour also does not really look like him either. Okay, so whatever he says about etching Sierra 7 into his plates and homes, he really needs to get a better sculptor.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, and he was. He got into a chain of hotels, he opened a gym franchise. All these CR7 products, like the underwear, the Fragrances, the hotels, the gyms, all on licensing and partnerships. And it's a pretty great way of making money because there's no capital at risk here. All you're using is your image, your name, what have you. This, once you've got it, is kind of free and the earning power is enormous. So in terms of return on capital, capital, it's a dream.

[Zing Singh]

Interestingly, the one brand he owns that doesn't bear the CR7 name is a hair transplant clinic called Insparia, which is quite interesting. I think it ties into his whole metrosexual image. Right. I mean, male hair transplants are a huge industry.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. I'm on, you know, speaking as someone in their mid-50s, actually, just now, late-50s, I have to say, which is.

[Zing Singh]

Don't out yourself on it.

[Simon Jack]

Okay. Out myself on air. I can tell you, the hair transition transplant was not a thing when I was in my 20s and 30s. It was unheard of.

[Zing Singh]

And certainly if you had one, you wouldn't want to talk about it.

[Simon Jack]

No, for sure. Well, we've mentioned the Nike partnership, but the end of 2016, he got the ultimate cash cow. A lifetime deal with the biggest and richest sport brand. This is only the third lifetime deal they had made, and we've actually covered the other two. On this podcast, LeBron James and Michael Jordan reported this lifetime deal could be worth more than a billion dollars over time. An annual FE of just under 18 million plus. Nike gave Ronaldo performance bonuses, like an extra four and a half million dollars for winning the Ballon D' or in 2016 and again in 2017. So the more successful he is on the pitch, the more the sponsors pay him for, you know, his increased profile.

[Zing Singh]

But, you know, as expensive as this is, it's probably really good value for Nike. Ronaldo was becoming one of the big social media giants, you know, and social media is now probably the primary way to sell to people. It's reported that over 329 posts across his social media platforms, he generated just under $500 million in value for the brand.

[Simon Jack]

Wow.

[Zing Singh]

In fact, in 2018, he overtook Selena Gomez to become the most followed person on Instagram. We've actually also done Selena Gomez on this podcast. And just a few years later, he became the first person ever with half a billion followers on the platform.

[Simon Jack]

I find that absolutely amazing. I would not. If you'd asked me who is the most followed person on Instagram, he would not be it. I think it goes to show just the power of football as the world's most pop game. Astonishing. Half a billion followers. And of course, you know, as you rightly say, this coincided with where brands realized the way to get to the mass market was through social media platforms. So, obviously, he's incredibly powerful in that way.

[Zing Singh]

But the contract with Nike comes with a couple of strings attached. Well, he had this lifetime deal, but the specific contract itself was only 10 years. Right.

[Simon Jack]

One of the conditions was he had to still be playing for a top tier club. On average, professional footballers retire, I would say mid-30s. With this contract, he had years left on the field. So in 2018, age 33, pretty old for a player. He left Real Madrid and moved to Juventus. The transfer cost 112 million euros. That was the highest ever for a player who is over 30 years old. His new annual salary around 30 million euros.

[Zing Singh]

And on moving to Juventus, Ronaldo promised that they would win the Champions League.

[Simon Jack]

Big promise.

[Zing Singh]

The club was probably thinking about more than just how many goals Ronaldo could score them, though, because within 25, 4 hours of this deal being announced, Juventus got 5 million new social media followers. In his first season, the club's revenue grew by 58 million euros, including selling double the number of shirts. I bet Ronaldo shirt comprised quite a lot of those shirts.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. It's fascinating how quickly when a star player signs for a club, how quickly the shirt with their name and number manages to make it into their. Into their shop.

[Zing Singh]

But his three years at Juventus were not quite as glorious as Ronaldo hoped or promised. He didn't bring the team that much success. They didn't win the Champions League. And, you know, you can kind of go back and forth on this. Was this actually a good move on the club's part?

[Simon Jack]

Football fans are very club focused. You don't change your allegiance to your club. It's for life. So there might be a lot of Ronaldo fans who perhaps supported Manchester United, who might like the idea of the Juventus shirt. So they would buy one with Ronaldo on because they've got an association with the player.

[Zing Singh]

And that must be such an ongoing tension in football, right, because you have these superstar players who say, well, I'm bringing you the money. I'm bringing you the. The fans. And the club can say, well, at the end of the day, you're playing for us and the club, you know, La Mafia. So triumphs overall.

[Simon Jack]

The club is bigger than any individual matey boy. I think that's classic.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Something Alex Ferguson would say.

[Simon Jack]

But he had another move up his Sleeve, because in 2021, now age 36, he moved back to Manchester United. I remember this very clearly. Everyone said, he's back. It was like homecoming. And suddenly all the people who hated him for having left in the first place welcomed him back with open arms. Man United paid a lot less than Juventus. They paid 15 million euros compared to 112 just three years earlier. But it didn't go that well, to be honest. The time back at Manchester United was pretty troubled. The goals didn't come as easily. He's 36, after all. There was tension behind the scenes. He had some big distractions happening off the pitch, and we should probably actually take a moment to catch up with his personal life.

[Zing Singh]

Well, Ronaldo met his girlfriend, Georgina Rodriguez in 2016 in a Gucci store. She was working as a sales assistant, and according to them, it was love at first sight what attracted you to the millionaire footballer. A year later, he announced he had become father to twins via an American surrogate. And just six months later, Georgina gave birth to a child they had together. So now we get to spring 2022. He's playing for Man United. Georgina was expecting twins, but sadly they announced that one of those twins died during childbirth.

[Simon Jack]

Oh dear. Yeah. There was also a legal case playing on Ronaldo's mind In the summer of 2022, US judge finally dismissed a rape allegation, a civil lawsuit against him that had been rumbling on for a few years. Catherine Mayorga allegedly raped her at a Las Vegas Hotel in 2009. Now he denies the allegations. He does not deny the two met in Las Vegas in 2009. He said what happened between them was consensual and he has never been charged.

[Zing Singh]

The Clark County District's attorney office in Las Vegas said she reported an assault in 2009 but refused to state where it had happened or who the attacker was, and as a result, police were unable to conduct any meaningful investigation. She reportedly reached an out of court settlement with Ronaldo in 2010 for $375,000. But at her request, the allegations were investigated by police in 2018, and in 2019, US prosecutors said he would not face charges over the accusations as they could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

[Simon Jack]

She also brought a civil lawsuit seeking millions more. She said that while she had agreed to the settlement shortly after the alleged incident, her emotional trauma at the time did not allow her to participate in the mediation process. She felt pressured to accept the offer, but in 2022 the lawsuit was dismissed. The judge said her lawyer had improperly attempted to use documents that were leaked or stolen in a cyber attack to pursue the case, they're not admissible. The lawyer had sought and used documents from a website called Football Leaks, including those clearly marked attorney client privileged.

[Zing Singh]

So we finally get to autumn 2022, a year after joining Manchester United, Renowned is unhappy at the club. So he does an interview with Piers Morgan, which is described pretty much everywhere as explosive. In it, he says he's got no respect for the current manager, Eric Tanhag. He takes shots at former teammates, even the club's owners. Big no, no. These are the guys who are paying your bills. The fans hate this, as does the club, obviously. And the club releases a statement, Cristiano Ronaldo is to leave Manchester United by mutual agreement. Agreement with immediate effect.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah.

[Zing Singh]

The interview even caused a breakup between Ronaldo and his long term super agent. Remember him, Jorge? Who described it as a huge screw up, although he used a much ruder word, as you can imagine.

[Simon Jack]

So in December at the World cup in Qatar, Ronaldo was no longer the star player. Polls and Portuguese newspapers even called for the national team manager to drop him. It's so brutal, this, you know, this happens in sport. You know, you, you can't be on top forever. And it feels very brutal when having once been the God of Portuguese football, are then saying, should he even be in the team? In Portugal's final two games, Ronaldo suffered the humiliation of being downgraded to a substitute. He left the pitch in tears as Portugal exited the World Cup.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, I remember this. This was a big viral moment.

[Simon Jack]

But we're not quite at the final whistle in this story yet, are we?

[Zing Singh]

No, we're not. Ronaldo saved his most lucrative signing for the very last. In 2023, he signed to the Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr, relocating his family to Riyadh. Now, he may have been 37, geriatric by football terms, but the new contract earned him the highest average annual pay for a sports person. That is around 200 million a year in salary and bonuses. Don't forget, everything's tax free in Saudi, plus Perks, including a $30 million signing bonus. And his contract also reportedly includes other perks, such as an equity stake in the club and access to a private jet.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, this is an interesting one. Saudi Arabia Arabia has been on a mission. They've got a kind of 30 year plan to diversify their economy away from oil, which is 90% of the kingdom's revenues, into things like tourism, shopping, sport, entertainment, etc. So they did this with football. They wanted to have a big league there and lure some top players. A bit like the US does as well. If you think Lionel Messi went to play for a team in the US at the end of his career, and they've done it in golf as well. They had this thing called the LIV Tour to try and rival the PGA Tour. And some people will call this sportswashing. It's basically putting another lick of international sport to legitimize itself, you know, despite some human rights issues. You remember, of course, the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the arrest and alleged torture of women's rights campaigners, for example. Ongoing arbitrary and opaque nature of Saudi Arabia's justice system. How do you put that to one side? One way of putting it is presenting things like a desirable tourist destination. Ronaldo, remember, is still the most popular person in the world on Instagram with over 675 million followers. If it's good enough for Cristiano Ronaldo and his 675 million followers, you try and start thinking differently about Saudi as a place rather than some of its old associations. So sports washing can be pretty effective. Qatar itself did very much the same by holding the World Cup.

[Zing Singh]

Well, along with the human rights criticism, Ronaldo has also faced blowback for moving to a football league that also was just not very good.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, exactly.

[Zing Singh]

There's no way of getting around it. Well, in a press conference, Ronaldo was caught up on this. He has said it's normal to criticize what league is not criticized. Where there aren't problems and controversy, there are everywhere. Spain, Portugal. Ronaldo has argued that he's actually paving the way for other footballers to join him in Saudi, saying, everyone thought I was crazy. It's a privilege to change a country's culture in football, to have great stars. It makes me proud. Crowd I was the pioneer, and I feel proud of it.

[Simon Jack]

I think there is some truth in that. I think that people saw someone like Ronaldo go, and if you are a. He's the top of the tree. If you're a jobbing footballer in the middle leagues and you're not making much money and you know you're never going to get to the top of the Premiership or the European Champions League, whatever, someone offers you some money, in a way, you know, the fact that Ronaldo's playing there, does that make it an easier decision to take you and you? I think it probably does.

[Zing Singh]

That is true, yeah.

[Simon Jack]

And in 2025, he extended that contract with Al Nassr reported worth now $400 million. Blimey.

[Zing Singh]

Tax free.

[Simon Jack]

He got a 15% stake in the club after that. Deal. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index. We often use Forbes, but Bloomberg said Ronaldo's net worth was $1.4 billion. So Ronaldo is a billionaire. The very first football billionaire, aged 40. And interestingly, he stands apart from the small group of billionaire athletes who made the majority of their fortunes from sponsorship or owning companies. You know, Nike was the big factor in the Jordan fortune. Most of his wealth is derived from his salary on the pitch. Thanks very much. I think to the tail end of his career in Saudi.

[Zing Singh]

Yep, that's undeniable. So what does the future hold for Cristiano Ronaldo? Well, I mean, he's getting on a bit in football terms. He's going to have to stop playing the sport at some point. He's also, you know, not just a footballer. Right. He's like a case study in how you can monetize global celebrity and sporting fame. He's still the most followed person on Instagram.

[Simon Jack]

Wow. I just find that so incredible.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, incredible. He's still earning 18 million each year off the pitch from Nike. And he also now has five hotels in the CR7 hotel chain and over a dozen locations for his hair transplant clinic. So if you ever wanted to fix your hairline in a Ronaldo approved way, you can visit one of those clinics.

[Simon Jack]

So that is the Cristiano Ronaldo number seven superstar story. It's now time to score him in a bunch of categories. It's kind of a bit of fun, really, between naught and 10 on some different categories.

[Zing Singh]

Well, the first category is wealth. We all judge power, controversy, legacy later on. But in the wealth stakes, you know, he's relatively minor. $1.4 billion, according to Bloomberg. According to Bloomberg. Forbes hasn't listed him that yet, which is quite interesting. Yeah. But, boy, does Ronaldo know how to spend it.

[Simon Jack]

He sure does. I went to Portugal to see a friend and we played a bit around the golf just outside Lisbon, and there was this vast home being built right over the golf course. And I just kind of said, I think I know who that must be. And it was. It was Cristiano Ronaldo having this whopping great house built right there on the golf course. Probably one of many, many properties.

[Zing Singh]

He's got a Gulfstream G200 jet that cost about $19 million.

[Simon Jack]

He's got 20 super. He's got a Bugatti, Maserati, Bentley, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Phantom, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, et cetera, et cetera. He even bought his agent, Jorge Mendes, a Greek island. Good Lord. And he recently got engaged to Georgina the ring had a diamond the size of a walnut, I'm told. Apparently around 37 carats, nearly $5 million.

[Zing Singh]

Wow.

[Simon Jack]

When we do these things, it's not just how much money they have, but how they spend it. I think he scores quite highly in that category for sure.

[Zing Singh]

And also, don't forget, we also like to factor in a rags to riches element into this. They come and he has come really far from sleeping in a single room with all his siblings, having to basically wait outside McDonald's begging for food.

[Simon Jack]

Essentially having been mocked by his teacher for his poverty. Yeah, no, I think this scores pretty highly in this one, actually. I'm going to give him a seven or eight.

[Zing Singh]

I think, I think I'll give him an eight. Because you know that rags to rich's journey and how he spends it and

[Simon Jack]

also how much money he's made from actually doing the things thing he does. The amount of money he's actually earned with his two feet playing football is quite amazing. So I, I think you're right. Eight. Eight for wealth. What about controversy?

[Zing Singh]

Well, we've already spoken about the rape case, which he denies. But there are also other instances of controversy in his career. There's for instance, the tax evasion.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. In 2018, he accepted a nearly 19 million euro fine, 23 month suspended jail sentence in Madrid. In Spain, a two year sentence for of first offense can be served on probation with no requirement for custody. He was accused of avoiding paying tax in Spain between 2010 and 2014 when he was playing for Real Madrid. And it was kind of all around the image rights deal. Prosecutors said the proceeds were funneled through low tax companies in foreign nations to avoid paying the required tax. And in court as part of the deal, he acknowledged four incidents amounting to nearly 6 million euros owned. It's amazing how often sports players get involved in these tax things. I, I often don't think that they are particularly often the tax advisers advise them to sell a bit close to the wind, but remember Boris Becker got done for that.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah. If you're a superstar athlete, maybe worth paying a little bit more attention to who you're hiring as an accountant and what they're advising you.

[Simon Jack]

I think for the football fan, the controversy about Ronaldo is about his demeanor, his behavior on the pitch. Is he a team player? Is he not a team player? Is he arrogant? Does he show both? Those are kind of the issues.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah. I mean, the word theatrics comes to mind.

[Simon Jack]

Right. And Ronaldo has said modestly, if God can't please everyone, I Won't either.

[Zing Singh]

Oh, my God. I mean, that is the kind of behavior that makes you put your head in your hands, doesn't it?

[Simon Jack]

And of course, there's the decision to play for Saudi Arabian team, which we have discussed. So there's quite a lot there, a smattering of lots of different types of controversy there, aren't there? So I'm going to give him. I'm going to score him highly on this one. He, he still divides opinion as we look back on his career. No one can deny how many, just how many goals he scored. Nearly a thousand in top flight football. But I would say I'm going to give him a solid seven for controversy.

[BILT Advertiser]

Oh.

[Zing Singh]

I mean, I'm actually going to come down on seven as well. I mean, it's, it's a buffet of controversy, if you can look at it that way.

[Simon Jack]

And let's talk about power, which is another our categories. And this is an interesting one. And it's. I say his arrogance crops up again here because during his Piers Morgan interview, Piers suggested that Cristiano Ronaldo and Trump were the most famous people in the world, to which he insisted he was the most famous thing. I think worldwide, even in the small islands, they know me more than him. I think in the world, nobody's more famous than me. Tell me one, tell me one.

[Zing Singh]

Those are the words of a man who has rejected press training, I can tell you that.

[Simon Jack]

Yes, exactly. I think Taylor Swift would have something to say about that.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, definitely. Oh, yeah, for sure.

[Simon Jack]

Anyone else on that? Anyway, we've probably covered them. If there is anyone up there. Throughout his career, he's also held a lot of. This is an interesting one. We talk about power, power within a team structure. He scores very highly on that.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah. And not just, you know, kissing the ring. Right. It's about, you're changing the entire way your team plays around one man, which, you know, definitely does rub people up the wrong way.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. Power. I think within the sport and within his teams, he would be a nine. Outside of sport, I'd give him a four. So I'm gonna come down at six.

[Zing Singh]

Ooh, okay. Maybe I'll go even lower. Like maybe five out of ten. I just feel like at this current point, could he get an audience at the White House? Well, Trump certainly wouldn't want to meet him after he said he was more famous than Trump, so.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. And then legacy. The record books are full of Ronaldo's name.

[Zing Singh]

His own hometown in Madeira changed the name of his airport to Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport.

[Simon Jack]

Okay, you've made it.

[Zing Singh]

So you've made it. It's like jfk, John Lennon, Louis Armani. Strong Cristiano Ronaldo at Airport.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, Legacy. I think that his scoring record of nearly a thousand goals in top football will be very, very hard to beat, I would say, because he played for so many years at the top level. So for Legacy, I think he's going to be. Whenever you look up scoring records for the history of time, his name will be right at the top or very near the top. So I'm going to give him an eight for Legacy.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, I think I'm going to give him an 8. Despite all the controversy, I think he'll go down in history as one of the most talented players of his generation.

[Simon Jack]

I think he will go down as the person who brought application and hard work work to maximize his talent. No one thinks he's as talented as Lionel Messi, but everyone thinks he worked harder than anyone else to maximize his talent.

[Zing Singh]

And he certainly showed individual footballers that the sky is the limit when it comes to earning money for sure.

[Simon Jack]

Okay, so is he good, bad or just another billionaire? What do you think of Cristiano Ronaldo? Email Good bad billionaire. That's all one wordbc.com or drop us a text or WhatsApp to 00917-686-1176 and tell us what you think.

[Zing Singh]

And don't forget to include your name as we may read out your message on a future episode.

[Simon Jack]

So who's our next billionaire?

[Zing Singh]

Well, he's been called the Mozart of the attention economy.

[Simon Jack]

He's the living embodiment, in a way, of the YouTube phenomenon which has transformed the media landscape. And he managed to to crack the code of how to make something go viral.

[Zing Singh]

And he's become very rich off it. That is Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, on

[Simon Jack]

our next episode of Good Bad Billionaire. Good Bad Billionaire is a BBC World Service podcast produced by Hannah Hufford. The editor is Paul Smith and it's

[Zing Singh]

a BBC Studios production for the BBC World Service. The senior commissioning producer is Sarah Green and the commissioning editor is John Minnell.

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