Cristiano Ronaldo is determined to play football until he is 40, but few are as prepared for retirement as he is.
Ronaldo, 38, told Piers Morgan in December that he wanted to continue playing for another two or three years and that he has always seen 40 as a good age to end his professional career.
The Portuguese superstar footballer, who currently plays in Saudi Arabia for Al-Nassr on a £175 million a year contract, looks from the outside ready for a life after retirement.
While there may be big strides to come – he could go the route of someone like basketball icon Michael Jordan and buy a sports team, or he could follow NFL great Tom Brady and go into the media – Ronaldo already has a plethora of options open to him as soon as he hangs up his boots.
Sports mail looks at some of the potential projects that could take up Ronaldo’s time when he retires.
Cristiano Ronaldo is now in the last years of his football career and his retirement is not far off
Ronaldo currently plays in Saudi Arabia on a £175 million a year contract with Al-Nassr
PROPERTY PORTFOLIO
Ronaldo would be well within his right to simply put his feet in one of his glamorous properties when all is said and done with football.
He has a penchant for real estate and could well choose to expand his huge portfolio when he retires.
Ronaldo is currently in the process of having what is being dubbed his ‘forever home’ built at a cost of £17 million on the Portuguese Riviera.
The house will stay put a large plot of land in Quinta da Marinha, Cascais, on the west coast of Portugal.
It is a very prestigious, expensive area and according to numerous reports, Ronaldo and his family will settle there as soon as he is ready. .
But given his incredible wealth, he has plenty of options.
Ronaldo also owns a seven-storey apartment building in Funchal, Madeira, where his mother Dolores, 66, and brother Hugo live after buying it two years ago.
He still owns a tucked away villa in Turin, high in the mountains, from his time playing for Juventus. The two adjoining villas that make up the Turin mansion include a state-of-the-art gym, as well as a swimming pool and spacious bedrooms and bathrooms.
A £4.8 million mansion on a gated fortress estate called La Finca, close to Madrid, is also part of his stable, as is a stunning holiday home in Marbella, which he picked up in 2019.
Built by Otero Group developers, the Marbella home includes a built-in theater, LED ramps and an infinity pool.
In 2020, during the Covid pandemic, Ronaldo also splashed out on the most expensive flat ever sold in Lisbon, paying £6.5 million for a 3,100 square foot state-of-the-art site on Avenida da Liberdade.
Last year he opted to sell his luxury nine-bedroom Trump Tower apartment in New York – albeit at a loss of £8.5 million. So if he is going to buy and sell real estate, he will have to learn to find some bargains.
Ronaldo is months away from his ‘forever home’ – a £17 million project on the Portuguese Riviera
Ronaldo bought a large plot of land in Quinta da Marinha, Cascais, in September last year
Ronaldo plans to settle with his family in his new mansion when he retires
BRAND OFFERS
One of the most obvious ways to get a steady income without much hassle for Ronaldo is through a host of lucrative brand deals.
As the most followed person on Instagram, he is one of the most marketable men in the world.
With 548 million followers, he has a huge influence and can charge extortionate prices for companies to get a piece of his page – as he should.
Ronaldo has a lifetime contract with Nike – becoming just the third athlete in the US sportswear giant’s history to receive one – and boasts dozens of other deals that will no doubt keep him busy.
The likes of Armani, Clear, Castrol, Tag Heuer, Egyptian Steel, Herbalife, Italia Independent, and PokerStars have all previously been endorsed by Ronaldo.
More recent partnerships include LiveScore, MEO, ZujuGP, Uniecampus and Therabody.
Last October, Ronaldo was, unsurprisingly, named the most marketable athlete in the world, ahead of longtime rival Lionel Messi, Serena Williams, Lewis Hamilton and LeBron James.
Athletes were ranked according to a “Merchantability Score,” which is broken down into three different scoring components: Brand Strength, Economy, and Audience.
Designed to accurately evaluate an athlete’s marketability, the rankings are not based solely on social media followers or reach, but also take into account an athlete’s social impact, charitable efforts, and influence on the triple bottom line.
Ronaldo was named the most marketable athlete after a ‘saleability score’ of 91.21 out of a possible 100.
Last year, Forbes estimated his on-field earnings to be $60 million, while his off-field earnings trailed slightly behind at $55 million. If Ronaldo really wants to do anything and everything, he will make an even bigger fortune when he retires.
Ronaldo is regarded as one of the world’s most marketable men given his social media reach
He promotes an array of products on his page and would make a fortune even when he retires
Many posts on his Instagram page are duly tagged as “paid partnership” – making a fortune
COMPANY
If brand deals don’t appeal to him, he can devote all his time to his business empire.
In addition to his own underwear line, Ronaldo has a major share in the hotel industry in partnership with Pestana Hotels, now known as Pestana CR7.
He has hotels in Lisbon, another in his hometown of Funchal, while there are also branches in Madrid, Marrakech and New York.
The hotel in Funchal is particularly important to Ronaldo, as his museum is attached to it and the hotel is themed around him.
Expanding the hotel empire is certainly an option when he retires – as is doing more for the gyms he owns, or the multiple hair transplant clinics called Insparya that he owns.
If he is happy with his number of hair clinics and hotels, he also has the potential to expand his partnership with US health brand Crunch, which launched the ‘CR7 Fitness’ gym in Madrid in 2016.
The gym group’s website lists more than 300 facilities that are open worldwide.
As part of his ever-expanding lifestyle brand, he has CR7 Eyewear, CR7 Footwear, CR7 Underwear and CR7 Fragrances.
CR7 Underwear is one of the four elements that make up his lucrative CR7 lifestyle brand
CHARITY SECTOR
Perhaps Ronaldo decides to put his time into family and philanthropy and has shown throughout his career that he is incredibly generous to charity.
In 2015, dosomething.org recognized Ronaldo as “the most charitable athlete in the world’.
Ronaldo, who helped like UNICEF, World Vision and Save the Children in the past, has a long history of charitable movements.
In 2016, it was announced that he would co-opt a project to fund the construction of a children’s hospital in Santiago, Chile.
That same year, he auctioned a replica of his 2013 Ballon d’Or trophy for £600,000, with the proceeds going to the Make-A-Wish foundation at a dinner in London.
Also in 2016, he donated food, medical care and clothing to Save the Children for an emergency appeal to help children in war-torn Syria.
Ronaldo has donated thousands to cancer research and in 2014 paid for brain surgery for a 10-month-old baby to prevent the child from having up to 30 seizures a day.
More recently, in 2021, Ronaldo joined forces with Nike to restore a dilapidated football pitch in Funchal, while also funding 24 scholarships for the eCampus Universita.
And so while Ronaldo may choose to go down the road to more properties or more supercars, he has shown a desire to use his money and influence for good, perhaps leaning even more on the charitable arm of his life outside the football. .
“My father always taught me that when you help other people, God will give you double,” Ronaldo said in 2013.
“And that’s what really happened to me. If I have helped other people in need, God has helped me more.”
