Saudi Arabia and Final Legacy

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK The ultimate cookout starts with the ultimate ingredients. At Whole Foods Market, no antibiotics ever burgers and kebabs are prepped and ready to throw on the grill. Fire up a juicy ribbeye. Grab creamy potato salad and savory flatbreads from the prepared foods department, and round it all out with three hundred sixty five brand condiments, chips and dips at everyday low prices Whole Foods Market, makeake your summer sizzle. Odu provroviding tools for businesses across industries into one fully integrated platform, whatever your business needs, Odu is committed to providing it. Learn more at OdWo. com It's two thousand nine, a cold January morning. a twenty three year old grips the wheel of a two day old three hundred thousand dollars Ferrari Overhead airopplanes are coming into land at Manchester Airport. He zooms down into a tunnel and then he smashes intonto the wall, the front of a sports car crumples and the windscreen smashes. He gets out of the car, his tall body ripped with muscles. the car is total but he's okay, with barely a hair out of place on his perfectly qufted head He jumps into a Bentley that was following right behind him. There's no time to lose. He has to be on the pitch within the hour. becausecause this footballer never misses training And it's his dedication, obsession, some would say that will make him a billionaire 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. We take them from zero to their first million and then from a million onto a billion. My name is Xinggingg, and I'm a journalist autor and podcaster. And I'm Simon Jack. I'm the BBC's businessiness editor And on this episode, we've got a billionaire who is actually the subject of several requests from listeners. 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 Rich's story. be fascinating to see him through the good bad or justust another billionaire lens. He says, I really think it will be kindind of tough, interesting. 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 a tons of football is like it's like watching someone dance ballet Yeah next to someone who can't dance at all. Yeah, no, he had very fleet of foot for sure He's got dozens of world records, including the most goals scored in international football, nine hundred and sixty eight at the time of recording And the most Innational caps two hundred and twenty six for his home country of Portugal Now forty one years old, he was declared a billionaire just last year worth one point four billion dollars. 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 Leonol Messi might have something to say about that. Well, Ronaldo is also regularly described as arrogant as narcissistic and his behaviour 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 Cristiano Ronaldo Dos Santos Evero was born in nineteen eighty five in Madeira, a small Portuguese island out in the Atlantic Ocean. His mother, Dolores was a cook and a cleaner. hisis father Denis. as a municipal gardener Dennis had been a soldier at war and he struggled with depression and alcoholism. Ronaldo was their fourth child and he was an accident. hisis 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 wit outside a local McDonald's late at night when hungry, hoping the workers might sneak them leftover big ms. But he said it wasn't a bad childhood. He said it was all we knew. everyveryone around us lived the same way and we were happy. 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 backseat 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 At the age of seven, Ronaldo started playing for Anderinia. He wore number seven on his jersey for his first match and he scored a go in the team's four nail 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 b he would get angry and cry easily if the other boys didn't pass in the ball or because they did not play as he wanted. They called him cry baby.. A nickname that's kind of dogged him through his career some. The word brat comes to mind. Exactly. and we will get into that In nineteen ninety five age nine, he was transferred to Madeiria's biggest club Nacional, who paid for the transfer with twenty 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 two thousand euros to sign him to their youth accademy. 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 twentyenty boys and a bunch of childrens sports equipments proam.tty good deal. The cheapest transfer for R Saudi Arabian club at the end of his career, whichish they could have got him for that kind of money 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. 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 hic from outside or whatever Plus is very young, plus You know, he's emotional. So I must have been pretty tough At Age fourteen, he was expelled from school after he threw a chair at the teacher because in his words, he disrespected me It's reported that the teacachher had made a comment about his family's poverty Dolores eventually flew in from Medir to help look after him and they agreed that he should leave education instead just pursue football full time. 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 fifteen, he was very nearly forced to retire from the sport. He was diagnosed of 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 two thousand two, by the age of seventeen, he was promoted from the youth squad to the main team in a Champions League qualifying match against inter Milan. 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. fromr as low as twenty thousand euros 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 and started courting him, basically Liverpool and Arsenal had scouts in Portugal at his games every week in Arsenal's manager Arse Rener tried to woo him, flying him, his mum, his agent to London. and there was a fee of eight million pounds agreed, but then it completely unraveveled. Ronaldo had been recently working with his agent Jorge Mendez, who would go on to be described as a superagent. Yeah, backack then he was a former nightclub owner and semi professional footballer who'd beenking with Portuguese players According to someone with insside Knledge, the Arenle deeal fell apart because it was classic Mendez.ith Horge, you always found yourself in a bidding wall, which he promoted and ultimately was to his benefit. It's very interesting when big money started coming into football twenty, thirty 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 themselves. And Venggeer wasn't very happy about this deal, was? No? No, Arson Venger was pretty unhappy to say the least. He never signed another player from Hallgame Menders, so he you know didn't do himself much favors on repeat business there But he did describe Im losing out on Ronaldo as my biggest regret. and that's, you know, given a whole career that Wenger had that' saying something Instead, Ronaldo signed with Manchester United. and the signing came a week after a friendly between Sorting 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 sign him to the team. Ral Ferdinand remembers Skzi, Bussy, and me were all saying to sign the sky. Skullzy, By, everyveryone's got a Y on the end of their name of Foty, haven't they? The truth though, apparently was a little bit different. Alex Ferguson had already convinced Ronaldo that Mannu was the place to go to develop into a world class player And you know, this is this is a pretty fabulous team Ianu at the time. They were riding high. you had Beckham. The money was probably a draw. The fee that Manchester United paid established Ral as the most expensive teenager in English football Why was he so valuable? Well at the time of the signing, Alex Fergon said he's an extremely talented footballer, a two footed attacker who can play anywhere up frront, right, left or through the middle. Classic manager speak But in terms of the money, the transfer fee was twelve million pounds just over, but that money doesn't go to Ronaldo. 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 ones so they pay them off player, the agent, the club All 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 a lump payment for facilitating this move. So the new club will then pay the player their wages. And we don't know all the details, but it was a five year contract. H 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 Lisbanon?ay Maybe he was a private jet? Maybe know. Anyway. He was still eighteen years old only and was seen holding Dolores's hand, his mum as he crossed the street in Manchester. Lly.. So when can we say Ronaldo becomes a millionaire on a one and a half million pound salary he would have taken home just under nine hundred K after tax minus Jorgees agent fees, which will sit somewhere between five percent to ten percent. and minus his living expenses and casual spending. We will discuss this later. It's probably safe to say that within a couple of years at Manchester United, so around the age of twenty, Ronaldo will have a million in the bank. So he's officially a millionaire The ultimate cookout starts with the ultimate ingredients. 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Selection varies by location So age twenty, got the world at his feet. he's a millionaire. Now we're going from a million So just as Ronaldo became a millionaire, his father actually died age fifty three from liver disease from his alcoolism Ronaldo said, I cried every day, people say we have money in cars, but we suffered. It frustrates me that he was never able to see my successors It's a 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 mutral. Ferguson's written in his autobiography. Christiano Ronaldo was the most gifted player I managed. He surpassed all the other great ones. I coached at United and I had many. Yeah, I wonder how those people feel, How the Beckhams, the Roies, the Roy Keeenes feel that Ronaldo in the eyes of Alex Ferguson, Sarahax Ferguson was considered the best He's quite tall for the kind of player who plays in 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 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 leaves, even though he was the most talented well some people would say that Messi was the more natural talent, but Ronaldo worked the hardest. so he really applied himself The biggest change, this is interesting, came from brain cognition. as 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 steeeliest mindset in football is the actual quote there. So that's interesting. 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's saying I started to believe I was the best in a two thousand seven to two thousand eight season, he scored forty two goals for Manu, helping them win the Premier League and the UFA Champions League AKA the European double. And he won his first Ballondor trophy, a prestigious award which is given to the best footballer in the world It's a Cme de la Creme. it's something people really want to win in a big way And his salary started reflecting his status on top. He was earning over six million a year for playing football, not bad. That's around one hundred twenty thousand 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. Yeah. And that comes from its working class roots as a football game when basically players say, he's on a ten or a week, he's on five bomb a week hundred and twenty grand a week. I mean No doubt car salesman are knocking on your door the whole time. Yeah. I mean, that's a lot of very fancy shops on Regent Street you could walk into. Yeah, exactly. But by this point his salary wasn't his actual his major earner. So he was getting twelve million from product endorsements. we've talked before Tiger Woods, for example, Michael Jordan, Lberal James, exactly. how important Nike has been in making athletes very, very rich. And Ronaldo's sponsorship deal with Nike began in two thousand three when he joined Manu, reportedly worth a few hundred thousand pounds per year then. But By two thousand nine, that was worth around nine million pounds In two thousand nine, he signed a deal to become the gllobal ammbassador for the petrol compomany Castrel. He had deals with Coca Cola, SZuuki, FIFA video games, Xerox Copia, an Indonesian energy drink. I mean, his agents working over timee to get in this money. He really, I think at this point in his career was just raking in the sponsorship deals. Well and the thing about sports people is their careers are short, right? If you make it thirty five, 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 sunshines. Also, you could break your leg any time. You could be out of commission. Well, you know, Indonesian Eergy drinks and Xero's copiers aside at this point of his career, Ronaldo is a global superstar. and so this obviously starts causing tensions within what's essentially a team sport Yeah In his team at Real Ferdand'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 going to try and do Alex Ferguson'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 two day old three hundred grand red Ferrari in a tunnel near the Manchester airport He was uninjured and he caught a lifter practice, but you know I'm sure his teammates were not very impressed with that either. Yeah, I remember this was a period when he was doing a lot of showbating on the pitch. L he had this thing where he would do what they call stepovers, which is you look like you're going to take the ball that way and you step over it, it's kind of a dummy. And you can do lots of these at once and it can end up looking quite ridiculous Alex Fergkson's character being a hard hard Glaswegian former pub owner canot have taken kindly to that kind of show boating. Anyway, after six years at the club when 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 Manu 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 is Rail Madrid. And he got his wish to play there because in two thousand nine twenty four year old for ninety three million euros that at the time was a world record transfer fee. and Real Madrid agreed to pay Ronaldo a reported eleven million euros salary per year. So that's nearly a million euros a month. 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 their games, which is huge, but sponsorship and merchandising they also make a lot of money out of that. Yeahep, They want to profit off a player's name in 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 adidasses, your Nes. So image rights are really fiercely contested over in contract negotiations. So a deal will be struck maybe fifty fifty split between player and club although we don't know what the Renaldo split with Re Madric was. 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 players value to a football club then it iss 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, Leonol 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 perfect combination of factors and influence at the same time But he was also making headlines 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? She's currently very invested in the longevity industry. Is oddly. She's got a cryogenic freezer or something in her house. 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 US. American Latino market. luc Well, Paris Hilton wasn't the only celebrity Ronardo was romantically linked to in the tabloids. He was reported to have been seen kissing Kim Kardashian in Madrid. He also dated a supermodel Ireina Shake from twenty ten to twenty fifteen. And there are also plenty of other models that he's been linked to. The playlayboy image probably doesn't ht, especially if you're ling up a deal with places like Armani. Brand Ronaldo was about being this well dressed meterosexual multi millionaire athlete. know and the spending was ostentatious 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 one hundred sixty million saying that is not correct. onn paper, it's actually much closer to two hundred forty five million. That kind of chimes, doesn't it with the whole I'm the best on the pitch, d dah, D don't underestimate me kind of thing He did keep one thing very secret though, the identity of the mother of his child. Now Christo Ronaldo Junior Of course was born in twenty ten and in agreement with the mother the baby was raised under his exclusive guardianship and it's reported that the mother was paid ten million pounds . 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 Well, while he was now a celebrity off the pitch On the pitch he was becoming a legend. so he won the Ballandor four more times between twenty thirteen and twenty seventeen. 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 twenty sixteen he had become the world's highest paid athlete, according to Forbes, and his contract was worth around fifteen 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 He was also earning thirty million euros a year in endorsements. got the Nike contract, of course, Tag Heuer, the watch company Dietary supplements, a poker website againgain, the agent really doing pulling his weight there But Ronaldo understood that if he was selling his image, why not own the brand? So in twenty thirteen, he launched something called CR seven which is Christiano Ronaldo and he's number seven. And it began just with men's underwear retailing at about thirty dollars, 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 CR seven fragrances. So really rinsing the brand here as hard as you can Well, he also went all out. He spent thousands of pounds having CR seven 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 CR seven. He said it was probably the most extravagant thing I've ever done, which is coming from Cristiana Ronaldo. Things really did step up big gear though when he opened a CiR seven museum in Madeira, a space dedicated to his trophies. I've actually walked outside. I've walked around outside this museum. Oh yes, you went the new. Yeah, didn't I didn't went as and go in, but I did go outside and I saw the statue of Ronaldo. The statue at the museum is not the famous one had to be taken down too bad. But I will say the statue in Funcha in the Harbour also does not really look like him either. Okay. So whatever he says about etching CiR seven into his plates and homes, he really needs to get a better sculptor. Yeah. And he he got into a chain of hotels, he opened a gym franchise, all these CR seven products like the underwear, fragrances, the hotels, 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. The earning power is enormous. So in terms of return on capital, it's a dream. Interestingly, the one brand he owns that doesn't bear the CR seven name is a hair transplant clinic called inssparia, which is quite interesting. I think it ties into his whole meterosexual image, right? I mean, male hair transplants are a huge industry Yeah, Speaking of someone in their mid fifties, at just now late fifties, I have to say, which is. D don't yourself on air? O myself on air. I can tell you the hair transplant was not a thing when I was in my twenties and thirties. It was unheard of. And certainly if you had one, you wouldn't want to talk about it. No, for sure. Well, we've mentioned the Nike partnership, but at the end of twenty sixteen, he got the ultimate cash cow a lifetime deal with the biggest and ricest 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 that this lifetime deal could be worth more than a billion dollars over time, an annual fee of just under eighteen millionars plus Nike gave Renaldo performance bonuses like an extra four and a half million dollars for winning the Balon door in twenty sixteen and again in twenty seventeen said the more successful He is on the pitch, the more the sponsors pay him for, you know his increased profile You know, as expensive as this is, it is probably really good value for Nike. Ronaldo was becoming one of the big social media giants. know, and social media is now probably the primary way to sell to people. It's reported that over three hundred twenty nine posts across his social media platforms, he generated just under five hundred million dollars in value for the brand In fact, in twenty eighteen, 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. 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 popular game. astonishing half a billion followers Of course,, as you rightly say, this coincided with where brands realized that the way to get to the mass market was through social media platform. So obviously he's incredibly powerful in that way. But the contract with Nike comes with a couple of strings attached. Yeah. Well, he had this lifetime deal, but the specific contract itself was only ten years, right? One of the conditions was he had to still be playing for a top tier club On average for professional footballers retire, I wouldd say mid thirties with this contract he had years left on the field. So in twenty eighteen, agge thirty three, pretty old for a player. He left Real Madrid and moved to Juventus. The transfer cost one hundred and twelve million euros. That was the highest ever for a player who is over thirty years old his new annual salary around thirty million euros And on moving to Juventos, Ronaldo promised that they would win the Champions League. Big promise. The club was probably thinking about more than just how many goals Ronaldo could score them though, because within twenty four hours of this deal being announced, Juventus got five million new social media followers. In his first season, the club's revenue grew by fifty eight million euros, including selling double the number of shirts. I bet Ronaldo shirt pr quite a lot of those shirts. Yeah. It's fascinating how quickly when a star player signs for a club the shirt with their name and number manages to make it into their into their shop. But his three years at Juventus were not quite as glorious as Ronarddo 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 going back and forth on this. Was this actually a good move on the club's part? 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 theuventus shirt so they would buy one with Ronaldo on because they' got an association with the player. And that must be such an ongoing tension in football, right? Because you have these superstar players you say, well, I'm bringing you the money, I'm bringing you 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 Mafel so triumphs overall. The club is bigger than any individual my boy. I feel that's classic. Yeah It's exactly something Alexberergerson would say. But he had another move up his sleeve because in twenty twenty one, now age thirty six, 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 fifteen million euros compared to one hundred and twelve 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 as' thirty six 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 Ronaldo met his girlfriend, Georgina Rodriguez in twenty sixteen in a Gucci store. He 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 Georggina gave birth to a child they had together So now we get to spring twenty twenty two. He's playing for Man United. Georggino was expecting twins, but sadly, they announced that one of those twins died during childbirth. Oh dear. Yeah. There was also a legal case playing on Ronalda's mind in the summer of twenty twenty two. A U.S. judge finally dismissed a rape allegation, a civil lawsuit against him that had been rumbling on for a few years Katherine Maorga allegedly raped her at a Las Vegas hotel in two thousand nine. Now he denies the allegations. He does not deny the two met in Las Vegas in two thousand nine. He said what happened between them was consensual and he has never been charged The Clark County District's atttorney O office in Las Vegas said she reported an assault in two thousand nine, 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 Renaldo in twenty ten for three hundred seventy five thousand dollars. but at her request, the allegations were investigated by police in twenty eighteen. and in twenty nineteen, US prosecutors said he would not face charges over the accusations as they could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt. 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 twenty twenty two, 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 use documents from a website called Football Leaks, including those clearly marked attorney client privileged So We finally get to autumn twenty twenty two. a year after joining Manchester United, Ronaldo 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 Tan Hug. If you takeakes shots at former teammates, even the club's owners, B no no. Th 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 with immediate effect The interview even caused a breakup between Ronaldo and his long term superagent, remember him Jorge, who described it as a huge screw up, although He used a much ruder word as you can imagine. So in December at the World Cup in Qatar, Ronaldo was no longer the star player. Plls in Portuguese newspapers even called for the national team manager to drop him. It's so brutal this, you know this happens in sports. you know, you can't be on top forever And it feels very brutal when having once been the god of Portuguese football, peopleople are then saying, shouldould he even be in the team? In Portugal's final two games, Ronaldo suffered the humiliations of being downgraded to a substitute. He left the pitch in tears as Portugal exited the Wld Cup. Yeah I remember this a viral moment. But we're not quite at the final whistle in this story yet, are we No Rinaldo saved his most lucrative signing for the very last. In twenty twenty three, he signed to the Saudi Arabian club Al NassA, relocating his family to Riyad. Now he may have been thirty seven, geriatric by football terms, but the new contract earned him the highest average annual pay for a sports person. That is around two hundred million do a year in salary and bonuses Don't forget Everything's tax free in Saudi perks including a thirty million dollars signing bonus, and his contract also reportedly includes other perks such as an equity stake in the club and access to a private jet. Yeah, this is an interesting one. Saudi Arabia They been on a mission. they've got a kind of thirty year plan to diversify their economy away from oil, which is ninety percent of the kingdom's revenues. into things like tourism, shopping, sport, entertainment, etcetera So they did this with football. They wanted to have a big leag there and lure some top players a bit like the US does as well. If you think Leonol 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 have this thing called the live tour to try and rival the PGA tour Some people will call this sports washing. It's basically putting another a lick of international sport. to legitimize itself.. know desespite some human rights issues, remember, of course, the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Kosji, 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 sidele? 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 six hundred seventy five million followers. If it's good enough for Christian Ronaldo and his six hundred seventy five million followers, you try and start thinking differently about Saudi. place rather than some of its old associations. So sports washing can be pretty effective. and QTar itself did you know did very much the same by holding the World Cup there Along with the human rights criticism, Ronaldo has also faced blowback for moving to a football league that also was just not Yeah. There's no way of getting around it. Well, in a press conference, Ronaldo was calledu up on this. He has said, it's normal to criticize. what league is not criticized, Wh 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 and football to have great stars it makes me proud I was the pioneer and I feel proud of it. I think there is some truth in that. I think that people saw someone like Ronaldo go. and if you were a Here'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 preremiership 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 an anesia decision to take you and I think it probably does. Yeah that's true. Yeah And in twenty twenty five He extended that contract with Al NSA, reported worth now four hundred million dollars blimly free. He got a fifteen cent stake in the club. After that deal, the Bloomberg Billionaires index, we often use forbes but Bloomberg said Ronaldo's net worth was one point four billion dollars. So Ronaldo is a billionaire The very first football billionaire aged forty. and interestingly, he stands apart from the small group of billionaire athletes who made the majority of their fortunes sponsorship or owning companies, you know, Nike was the big factor in Jordan forortune 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. Yep, that's undeniable So what does the future hold for Christiano 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. Wow. just find that incredible. Yeah incredible He's still earning eighteen million do each year off the pitch from Nike. And he also now has five hotels in the Sira seven hotel chain and over a dozen locations for his hair transplant clinic. So if you ever wanted to fix your hairline in a Rinauto approved way, you can visit one of those clinics No 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 bit of fun really between Nort and Ten on some different categories Well, the first category is wealth. We'll judge power, controversy legacy later on. But in the wealth states, you know, he's relatively minor, one point four billion dollars. Aing to Bloomberg. Acording to Boomberg Bobbn't listed that yet, which is quite interesting. Yeah. But boy does Ronaldo know how to spend it? 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 And I just kind of said, I think I know who that must be. And it was that there was Christiano Ronaldo having this whopping great house built right there on the golf course. Bare one of many, many properties. He's got a Gulf stream G two hundred jet that cost about nineteen million dollars. He's got twenty supercars. He's got a Bagghati, Mazarati, Benty, Lamborghini Rll Roy, Fant, bl, blah, blah, blah, blah, eta,eta bought his agent Hall gay men, there's a Greek island G Lord And he recently got engaged Georgina. The ring had a dimond the size of a walnut, I'm told, apparently around thirty seven carrats Nearly five million dollars. Wow. When we do these things, it's not just how much money they have, but how they spend it. I think he scores quite high in that category for sure. And also don't forget we also like to factor in a rags to Riches' element How far have they come And he has come really far Yeah. fromom sleeping in a single room with all his siblings, having to basically wit outside McDonald's, begging for food essentially. Having been mocked by his teacher for his poverty. Now, I think this scores pretty high in this one actually I'm going to give him a Seven or eight, 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 also how much money he's made from actually doing the thing he does. The amount of money he's actually earned with his two feet Playing football is quite amazing. So I think you're right, eight for wealth What about controversy? 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, a tax evasion. Yeah. In twenty eighteen, he accepted a nearly nineteen million euro fine, a twenty three months suspended jail sentence in Madrid. In Spain, a two year sentence for a first offense can be served on probation with no requirement for custody He was accused of avoiding paying tax in Spain between twenty ten and twenty fourteen 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 acquired tax and in court as part of the deal, he acknowledged four incidents amounting nearly six million euros owned. It's amazing how often sports players get involved in these tax things. I often don't think that they are particularly Often the tax advisers advise them to sall a bit close to the wind But remember Boris Becker got done for that? Yeah, if you're a superstar athlete, maybe worth paying a little bit more attention to who you're hiring as an accountant and they're advising you. I think for the football fan, the controversy about Ronaldo is about his demeanor, his behaviour on the pitch Is he a team player? Is he not a team player? Is he arrogant? Do he showbat? those are kind of the issues? Yeah, I mean the word theatrics comes to mind, right? And Ronaldo has said modestly, if God can't please everyone, I won't either. Oh my God. I mean, that is the kind of behaviour that makes you put your head in your hands, doesn't it? And of course there's the decision to play for Saudi Arabiaian team, which we have discussed. So there's quite a lot there A smattering of lots of different types of controversy there, aren't they? I'm going to give him I'm going to score him highly on this one. He still divides opinions as we look back in 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 her a solid seven for controversy. Oh, I mean, I'm actually going to come down on seven as well. I mean It's a buffet of controversy's Look at it that way. And let's talk about power, which is another of our categories. And this is an interesting one. and I would say his Arrogance crops up again here because during his Pers Morbon interview, Pers suggested that Christiana Ronalda 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. tellell me one Those are the words of a man who has rejected press training. I can tell you that. Yes Exactly. I think Taylor Swift would have something to say about that? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure. 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 this is an interesting one. we talk about power