Daily Times

Cristiano Ronaldo has become football’s first billionaire ahead of Lionel Messi – with his Barcelona rival to follow suit next year.

Juventus and Portugal forward Ronaldo, 35, is only the third athlete to hit the mark while still playing, following Tiger Woods and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The 35-year-old, who was named the highest-paid footballer on the planet in 2020, according to Forbes, is also the highest-earning athlete in lockdown after making nearly £1.9 million through Instagram alone.

Overall, Ronaldo is only the third athlete to hit the billion-dollar mark, with Tiger Woods being the first (having done so in 2009) and Floyd Mayweather the second (in 2017).

Ronaldo, who is popularly known as Cr7, earned Sh11 billion ($105 million) before taxes and fees in the past year, making him the first footballer in the history of the game to earn $1 billion.

“The only team athlete to even come within striking distance of those figures was former New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, who retired in 2016 after 22 years in MLB having earned $450 million (Sh48 billion) in salary.

“Not even soccer legend David Beckham came close, ending his career with total earnings of $500 million (Sh53 billion), half of which came from off-pitch endorsements.”

“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.”