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Following his shocking transfer from Real Madrid to Juventus, Ronaldo will attempt to write a new chapter in his legendary career.
It is no longer news that Ronaldo sets and breaks new records wherever he goes, from Portugal with Sporting Lisbon and his national team, to England with Manchester United and Spain with Real Madrid.
It is undebatable that the Madeira native will continue that trend at Juventus and the Old Lady of Turin can look at all the positives from signing a genuine superstar despite the huge outlay to get him. The Italian champions will fancy their chances of ending their 21-year wait for Champions League glory.
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Juventus have already made huge gains from the deal despite Ronaldo having yet to be unveiled by the Italian outfit, with reports emanating that the club's value increased courtesy stocks rising just by virtue of being heavily linked with Ronaldo before any official confirmation was made.
Ronaldo has evolved from being just a footballer into one of the most easily recognizable faces in the world, leading to multi-million dollar endorsements from multiple brands. Anyone associated with the Ronaldo brand gets huge rewards both on and off the pitch and with his exit from Spain goes a veritable source of income and brand exposure for Real Madrid.
The footballing world will never be the same again following this gargantuan transfer, and we take a look at the five biggest losers from the Ronaldo to Juventus transfer.
#1 Real Madrid
It is easy to argue that Real Madrid got the better deal by selling a 33-year-old player for a profit on the then world record fee they paid for him in 2009 after nine years of optimum performances for the club.
However, to opine that will be to dismiss Ronaldo's value to merely transfer figures which are not only an aberration but also an attempt to downplay his immense contributions both on and off the pitch.
Ronaldo is the second most followed person on Instagram, the most followed on Facebook, and the second overall most followed person across all social media platforms, with an endorsement by him on social media estimated to be valued in millions of dollars.
With his transfer, Real Madrid have lost arguably the most marketable player in the history of football and with him goes a large number of feverishly dedicated and loyal fans with reports emanating that the club lost over 1 million followers on Twitter in the first 24 hours of the confirmation of Ronaldo's departure.
However, Ronaldo is not just a prima donna, valued only for his marketability; the Portuguese superstar is a genuine game changer and unarguably one of the greatest footballers in the history of the game. Real Madrid have lost a proven player with a track record of delivering on the biggest stages.
Real Madrid's recent era of success, particularly in the Champions League can be attributed to Ronaldo's superhuman stats in his nine years at the club. With him goes all his goals and the ability to rise up to the occasion when it matters most.
Ronaldo's numbers at Real Madrid are well documented, with 450 goals in just 438 matches, he is their all-time leading goalscorer in all competitions, the club's top scorer in the UEFA Champions League with105 goals (120 overall), the club's leading goalscorer in La Liga (311 goals), as well as their top assist provider of all time in La Liga (85) and the UEFA Champions League(25).
To state that he is irreplaceable at Real Madrid is merely stating the obvious and even though Madrid will almost certainly sign a Galactico replacement, Ronaldo has left very huge boots at the Bernabeu that will be difficult if not impossible to fill and how Real Madrid cope in his absence is yet to be seen. However, Los Merengues' loss is the Old Lady of Turin's gain.
# 2 La Liga
The Premier League is easily the most marketable and followed league in the world, with television revenue for broadcast rights running into billions of pounds. Other European leagues can only look from afar and admire the Premier League's almost 30-year-old marketing model.
While La Liga does not have the same massive appeal as the Premier League, it was home to two of the greatest players of the current generation by a long way for the best part of almost a decade.
Ronaldo brought with him to La Liga a whole new generation of dedicated and passionate followers and it is unarguable that television viewership of La Liga increased with his arrival, as fans tuned in every week to watch their idol set or break a new record in the Primera Division.
The Ronaldo-Messi rivalry is well documented, with everyone on one side of the decade-long argument of who the better player is.
Such has been their utter dominance that all individual award ceremonies in the last ten years have been duopolized into their personal battleground and their competition has been so intense that it spawned a website dedicated to just the two's stats and records.
While it might be nearly impossible to determine who the better player is, the fact that the two best players played for the two biggest clubs in the same league at the same time was a momentous gain and marketing cash cow for La Liga.
El Clasico is the most watched club game of football in the world, with all the history and legendary players attached to it creating a special appeal.
However, the arrival of Ronaldo at Real Madrid in direct rivalry with Messi at Barcelona skyrocketed the popularity of the match as fans saw it as an opportunity for both players to come up face to face with one another and prove who the better player is.
There were always at least two La Liga matches involving both teams, with the Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup providing extra platforms for El Clasico to take place and the LFP (Spanish football authority) took the opportunity to cash in on the popularity of its marquee fixture as millions of viewers from around the globe tuned in for Messi and Ronaldo to battle it out with their teams for 90 minutes or more.
Despite Ronaldo's departure, El Clasico will continue to take place and both teams' giant stature means they will continue to attract world-class players (albeit on a level lower than Ronaldo and Messi).
Millions will continue to watch Barcelona tackle Real Madrid or their favorite teams in La Liga as it was in the days before Ronaldo and Messi, but make no mistake about it, the marketability of the duo was boosted by their direct competition with one another and with one half of La Liga's most marketable pair gone, La Liga's appeal is bound to take a hit.
#3 Lionel Messi and Ronaldo
There has to be a void in both players right now, not emotional or psychological, but a space created by not having to compete with the only player on a similar level to you on a weekly basis.
For nine seasons in La Liga, Messi has performed extraordinary feats, only to see them eclipsed by Ronaldo sometimes in a matter of hours and vice versa. Both players have set yardsticks, almost unspokenly daring the other to achieve or surpass it.
It was almost comical the way in which both players set about raising the bar in their competition with one another and such was their otherworldly brilliance that every other player in the world left them in their personal game of deciding the world's best.
Ronaldo set a record of scoring against all La Liga teams in a single season, Messi achieved the same feat the next season and added an extra touch by doing so in consecutive matches.
Ronaldo became the first player ever to reach the 40 league goal mark in 2011, a season later, Messi did the same and added an extra 10 goals for good measure. Messi was the first of the pair to score 50 Champions League goals and broke Raul's previous record first; Ronaldo beat him to 100. If Messi scores a brace, you can expect Ronaldo to score a hat-trick when Real Madrid lines up.
Each of the last 10 Ballon d'Ors have been shared equally between them, each of the last 8 Champions League Golden Boots has been won by at least one of them. Ronaldo became the first ever player to win the European Golden Shoe four times in 2015, Messi equalled that two years later and set a new record of five for himself at the end of the recently concluded season. They each hold the record of having appeared in the most FIFPRO World XIs with 10 appearances between 2007 and 2017.
Ronaldo's departure from La Liga will leave Messi playing god among mortals as everybody else in the league is substantially beneath his level and the individual awards are almost guaranteed to be won without breaking a sweat. The same can be said about Ronaldo in the Serie A.
Both players have admitted that their competition drives each other to strive to be better and being in direct competition with one another helped forge the greatest sporting rivalry in history.
Both players were an inseparable entity for nine seasons as Ronaldo was the Yin to Messi's Yang, a symphony whose movement has been halted, and both players will undoubtedly be the worse off for it.
#4 Karim Benzema
The 30-year-old Frenchman is one of Ronaldo's closest friends in the Madrid dressing room and it is easy to see why. Benzema has been selfless throughout his nine-year stay at the Bernabeu, unselfishly drifting out to the wing to let Ronaldo shine as the Portuguese increasingly adapted his game into being more of a centre-forward.
Karim Benzema arrived at Real Madrid from Lyon in 2009 as a 21-year-old and one of the most in-demand prospects in world football, owing to his impressive scoring feats in Ligue 1.
Over the next nine seasons, however, Benzema has not done too much in the goal scoring regard particularly in recent years to match his early reputation of the late noughties although understandably, it would have been difficult for anyone to outshine Ronaldo in goal scoring. Benzema humbly accepted this, playing the role of supplier for his more illustrious teammate to bang in the goals and take the spotlight.
Criticisms of Benzema have increased in recent seasons, with fans pointing out his profligacy in front of goal and low returns as proof of the need for his sale; but Benzema has always had an ally in Ronaldo and the full confidence of former coach and compatriot Zinedine Zidane.
With both gone, however, Benzema's status seems less guaranteed and his criticisms are heavily justifiable as his recent numbers in the opposition net are incredibly low.
Benzema scored just 5 league goals in 32 appearances in the just-concluded season and only 11 in 29 the season before.
With Ronaldo around and banging in the goals, it was easy to excuse Benzema's low returns as Ronaldo was already delivering the goods, and focus instead on other aspects of his game such as his passing accuracy and successful take-ons, but with his exit, Benzema will be thrust into the limelight as the man earmarked to lead Real Madrid's forward line.
However, owing to reports emanating from the Spanish capital, feelers indicate that the Frenchman is not trusted to get the job done as potential replacements are being lined up, with Valencia's Rodrigo identified as the chief candidate while Napoli have made enquiries about Benzema.
For nine seasons, Benzema was content to play second fiddle behind Ronaldo, but with the Portuguese gone, Benzema does not have such luxury again and it might be the right time to call it quits on his trophy-laden Real Madrid career.
#5 Julen Lopetegui
Julen Lopetegui was unceremoniously dismissed as Spain coach two days before the commencement of the World Cup after he had agreed terms with Real Madrid without the knowledge of the LFP.
The former Barcelona and Real Madrid goalkeeper has had a moderate coaching career to date, with his only honors as a manager coming at youth level where he led the Spain U19 and U21 teams to the European championships in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
At Porto, he underachieved despite being given the largest transfer budget in the Portuguese club's history and with Spain, he led the country to an undefeated streak in his first 20 matches in charge before his dismissal.
For all the talk of Ronaldo's individuality, his greatness means that he makes any coach's job easier. By revolving the team around the Portuguese, any team will profit and titles are guaranteed to be won.
Lopetegui must have been excited at the prospect of coaching one of the greatest players in history. A dream which is now almost nearly impossible owing to his Juventus departure.
The Real Madrid coaching job is one of the biggest and most notoriously volatile in the world, with the trigger-happy Perez happy to replace coaches as quickly as they come in. It is Lopetegui's biggest job to date and a good chance to bolster his relatively sparse CV, unfortunately, the 51-year-old would not be able to call on the hugely monumental services of Ronaldo as the last 5 coaches of Real Madrid have been able.
