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Cristiano Ronaldo is determined to play football until he is 40 years old, but few are as ready 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 had always considered 40 a good age to end his professional career.
The Portuguese superstar footballer, who currently plays in Saudi Arabia for Al-Nassr on a £175m a year contract, looks from the outside set for life in retirement.
While major moves could still be ahead, you can go the route of someone like basketball icon Michael Jordan and buy a sports team, or you can follow NFL great Tom Brady and get featured in the media, Ronaldo already has a plethora of options open to him once he hangs up his boots.
sports mail looks at some of the potential projects that could occupy Ronaldo’s retirement time.
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 £175m a year contract with Al-Nassr
PROPERTY PORTFOLIO
Ronaldo would be well within his rights to simply put his feet up at one of his glamorous estates when all is said and done with football.
He has a penchant for property and may well choose to expand his vast portfolio when he retires.
Ronaldo is currently in the process of building what has been dubbed his ‘forever home’, to the tune of £17 million in the Portuguese Riviera.
The house will settle a large plot of land in Quinta da Marinha, Cascais, on the west coast of Portugal.
It is a very prestigious and expensive area, and numerous reports indicate that Ronaldo and his family will settle there once it is finished. .
But given his incredible wealth, he has numerous options.
Ronaldo also owns a seven-story apartment block in Funchal, Madeira, where his 66-year-old mother Dolores and brother Hugo live after he bought it two years ago.
He still owns a hidden villa in Turin, high up in the mountains, from when he played 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 £4.8m mansion in a gated development called La Finca near Madrid is also part of his stable, as is a stunning holiday home in Marbella, which he acquired in 2019.
The Marbella home, built by developers Grupo Otero, includes a built-in theater, LED driveways and an infinity pool.
In 2020, during the Covid pandemic, Ronaldo also splurged on the most expensive flat ever sold in Lisbon, paying £6.5m for a state-of-the-art 3,100sqft platform on Avenida da Liberdade.
Last year he decided to sell, albeit at a loss of £8.5m, his nine-bedroom luxury apartment in New York’s Trump Tower. So if he’s into buying and selling property, he’s going to have to learn to find a bargain or two.
Ronaldo is months away from having his ‘forever home’: a £17m project on the Portuguese Riviera
Ronaldo bought a large piece 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 avenues for Ronaldo to earn a steady income without much trouble is through a multitude of lucrative branding deals.
As the most followed person on Instagram, he is one of the most marketable men on the planet.
With 548 million followers, he has immense influence and can charge companies exorbitant fees to get a piece of his page, as it should be.
Ronaldo has a lifetime contract with Nike (he became only the third athlete in the US sportswear giant’s history to receive one) and 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 previously been endorsed by Ronaldo.
Recent links include LiveScore, MEO, ZujuGP, Uniecampus and Therabody.
Unsurprisingly, in October of last year, Ronaldo was named the most marketable athlete on the planet, ahead of his old rival Lionel Messi, Serena Williams, Lewis Hamilton and LeBron James.
Athletes were ranked according to a ‘Marketing Score’, which is broken down into three distinct scoring components: brand strength, economics, and audience.
Designed to accurately assess an athlete’s marketability, the ranking is not only based on number of followers or social media reach, but also takes into account an athlete’s social impact, charitable efforts and influence on the triple bottom line.
Ronaldo was named the Most Marketable Athlete after earning a “Marketability Score” of 91.21 out of a possible 100.
Last year, Forbes estimated his on-court earnings at $60 million, while his off-court earnings were just under $55 million. If Ronaldo really wants to do anything, he’ll make an even bigger fortune in retirement.
Ronaldo is seen as one of the most marketable men in the world given his reach on social media.
He promotes a variety of products on his page and would earn a fortune even in retirement.
Many posts on his Instagram page are duly tagged ‘paid partnership’, making a fortune
BUSINESS
If branded deals don’t appeal to you, you can spend all your time on your business empire.
In addition to his own underwear line, Ronaldo is heavily involved in the hotel industry in association with Pestana Hotels, now known as Pestana CR7.
He has hotels in Lisbon, another in his hometown of Funchal, while there are also sites in Madrid, Marrakech and New York.
The hotel in Funchal is particularly important to Ronaldo since his museum is attached to it and the hotel is inspired by 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, he owns.
If it’s happy with its number of hair clinics and hotels, it also has potential to grow its partnership with US health brand Crunch, which delivered the ‘CR7 Fitness’ gym in Madrid in 2016.
The gym group’s website lists more than 300 facilities open around the world.
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.
SOLIDARITY SECTOR
Perhaps Ronaldo decides to dedicate his time to family and philanthropy and has proven to be incredibly generous to charity throughout his career.
In 2015, dosomething.org recognized Ronaldo as “the world’s most charitable sports star’.
Ronaldo, who has helped like UNICEF, World Vision and Save the Children in the past, it has a long history of charitable movements.
In 2016 it was announced that it was co-opting a project to finance the construction of a pediatric hospital in Santiago de Chile.
That same year, he auctioned off 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 shipment to help children in war-torn Syria.
Ronaldo has donated thousands of dollars to cancer research and paid for a brain operation for a 10-month-old baby in 2014, to prevent the child from having up to 30 seizures a day.
Most recently, in 2021, Ronaldo joined forces with Nike to restore a decrepit soccer field in Funchal, while also funding 24 scholarships for the eCampus Universita.
And so, while Ronaldo may choose to go down the path of more property or more supercars, he has shown a desire to use his money and influence for good, which may see him lean even more on the charitable arm of his life outside of sports. soccer. .
“My father always taught me that when you help other people, God will give you twice as much,” Ronaldo said in 2013.
And that’s what really happened to me. When I have helped other people who are in need, God has helped me more.’