Cristiano Ronaldo - The highest paid footballer in the world

Ronaldo has scored 225 goals overall for Real Madrid

Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, is often regarded as one of the best footballers of his generation and none can argue the fact that he has been a dominating figure in the footballing world for the past decade. The Portuguese has won every major individual accolade that can be won as a player.

At the tender age of 22, he received nominations for FIFA’ s most prestigious individual honours – Ballon d’ Or and FIFA Player Of The Year. Ronaldo has added the FIFA Ballon d’Or thrice to his name and is expected to add more awards to his cabinet.

Born in a small Portuguese island of Madeira, the 30-year-old started off his career as a youth player for Andorinha before moving to C.D.Nacional. The promising youngster was gifted with such incredible talent and Sporting CP were quick to recognise the potential of the boy who was destined for greatness.

He came up the ranks of Sporting CP youth academy and in 2003, caught the attention of Sir Alex Ferguson who was the manager of Manchester United back then. The Scotsman became a father-figure to the young boy from Madeira and went on to mould the Portuguese to the player he is today.

He is now playing his club football with Spanish giants Real Madrid. Hard work and determination are the factors that have led Ronaldo to achieve great heights both in England and Spain but how much does Ronaldo actually earn for his undying efforts? Where does he stand in the list of world’s richest sportspersons? Let’s take a look.

Ronaldo is the third-highest paid athlete in the world

The Portuguese forward has total earnings of $79.6 million as Forbes magazine named Ronaldo the third-highest paid athlete in the world. He is below the two giant boxers Manny Pacquiao ($160 million) and Floyd Mayweather ($300 million) while his footballing rival of sorts, Lionel Messi boasts total earnings of $73.8 million.

Ronaldo reportedly earns a base salary of $40 million annually at the Santiago Bernabeu after signing an improved contract extension of three years in 2013. Adding the performance-based bonuses and winnings, the Real Madrid superstar earns a total of $52.6 million per annum.

The 30-year-old is among the most marketable athletes in the world along with David Beckham who is another fine example of a footballer who has a number of endorsement deals with world’s biggest brands. Ronaldo was a superstar in the making when his reputation grew rapidly from his time with Manchester United.

His endorsement deals include Armani, Fly Emirates, Herbalife, Motorola, Castrol, Tag-Heuer, Samsung, Konami, KFC, Coca-Cola, Jacob and co, Banco Espirito Santo, Sacoor Brothers and Pokerstars. He collects an enormous figure of $27 million through these endorsement deals.

American Sportswear company Nike is Ronaldo’s biggest sponsor, the deal with them pays him $8 million a year. Nike Mercurial has been his “goalscoring shoe” his entire career - switching between the Vapor and Superfly models from time to time. But since 2010, Ronaldo has been wearing his signature boots - Mercurial Superfly CR7 designed by Nike.

Many eyebrows were raised when Ronaldo made a deal with KFC. “The day an endorsement is announced there tends to be an increase in sales and in company stocks.” – said one of the consultants in Abu Dhabi. In 2009, the Blancos winger was made the global ambassador for Castrol – promoting the company at live events and on television. He initially agreed to a $9 million deal with the company.

So Ronaldo earns an enormous figure of $1.4 million on a weekly basis (Real Madrid wage), an addition of more than $27 million from various endorsements – making him the richest football player in the world.

Ronaldo gets what he deserves

One can argue the fact that Messi is currently the better player than Ronaldo and could go on to reach greater heights since the Argentine is younger than him. But the Portuguese has conquered England and now he's doing it in Spain with his lightning pace, silky skills, power and clinical finishing in front of goal.

He was arguably Premier League’s Best Player during his time at the Old Trafford and bagged a couple of individual honours during his spell with Ferguson’s side. He has won Barclays Player of the Year twice, PFA Players’ Player of the Year twice, PFA Young Player of the Year and was instrumental in the Red Devils’ treble-winning season in 2008.

Ronaldo has been breaking records right from the time he arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu for a transfer record fee of £80 million (which has now been broken by his teammate -Gareth Bale). He was the fastest La Liga player to reach 150 and 200 goals and has gone on to score 225 goals in 200 appearances and is now ten goals shy of beating Raul’s record, who still sits top of Real’s all-time top goal scorer.

The existing competition between Ronaldo and Messi has been intense since 2009 and both are tied at the top spot in the race for the leading scorer (77 goals each) in UEFA Champions League competitions. Ronaldo inspired Los Blancos in their La Decima winning campaign under former manager, Carlo Ancelotti.

The boy from Madeira has showed no signs in not being able to emulate his fine club form in the international scene. He earned his first call-up in the international competition for Portugal back in Euro 2004 which was hosted in his home soil. Unfortunately, he and his compatriots failed to win the cup in front of their fans – losing out to the impeccable Greece team 2-1 in the finals.

Ronaldo went on to become the second-highest scorer in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification in Europe with seven goals and scored eight goals in Portugal's UEFA Euro 2008 qualification campaign. However, on both occasions the Portuguese striker has failed to lead the charge as the team was heavily reliant on Ronaldo to net the goals. Ronaldo’s goal-scoring tally for Portugal has been impressive so far, netting 55 goals in 121 appearances in all competitions.

Ronaldo, arguably the greatest player of his generation

Ronaldo and Messi are both equally good at what they do best – scoring goals. Messi has the ability to skip past three, four defenders with his body feints and dribbling skills while Ronaldo is gifted with power and pace.

The Bernabeu legend has been crowned with the FIFA Ballon d’Or thrice while Messi has four to his name. The 30-year-old has bagged all the major individual honors in his career and still has a few more years to perform at the highest level.

The ambassador of Armani and Nike wear is an asset to Real Madrid who is valued highly by the club president Florentina Perez. The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) puts his value at € 133 million while Transfermarkt values him at €120 million. His counterpart Messi is the only player who’s valued higher than the Portuguese forward.

Real Madrid are keen to hold on to their star man till he reaches the twilight of his career, but Ronaldo wouldn’t mind ending his career at Old Trafford either. Nonetheless, he has earned a legendary status both in Manchester United and Real Madrid. It is easy to understand why Ronaldo is paid so much.