Ronaldo named the world's first billionaire footballer

Heimir Hallgrimsson's Republic of Ireland face a tough task on Saturday evening in Lisbon against a world class Portugal side, spearheaded still by the 40-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo.

Having recently signed a two-year extension with Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr that will extend the record-breaking career into his 43rd year at least, it would be hard to argue he is still doing it for the money.

(Even if that two-year extension was reportedly worth €344m.)

Ronaldo's need to work for a living expired a long time ago, a point hammered home by business magazine Bloomberg, who named the former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus forward as the world's first billionaire footballer.

In fact, Bloomberg place Ronaldo's career earnings at €1.2b.

The report estimates he earned €473m in salary from Sporting Lisbon, United, Real, Juventus and Al-Nassr between 2002 and 2023, with endorsements worth another €15.5m per year.

To put some of these figures in context, the football website Transfermarkt.com currently values the entire Republic of Ireland squad at €212.7m.

Ronaldo will hope to score his 120th goal for Portugal against the Boys in Green this Saturday and, unfortunately, the odds are quite good, considering four of his previous 119 goals came in two matches against Ireland.

Most recently he scored two in the 2024 3-0 friendly defeat. Most painfully he scored two late goals in the last-gasp 2-1 2022 World Cup qualifier defeat in Faro.

Portugal fans would no doubt argue the Euro 2016 winner is worth every penny of his valuation.

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