Cristiano Ronaldo to become the first ever Footballer to be a Billionaire

Cristiano Ronaldo has mirrored his success on the football pitch in his business ventures away from it and is in line to become the game's first ever billionaire player

Cristiano Ronaldo - Juventus Forward and Portuguese Captain         

Cristiano Ronaldo is doing his bit to help Juventus save money during the coronavirus outbreak but due to the astronomical success of his business ventures away from the pitch, he's unlikely to notice the financial hit.

Ronaldo has taken a pay cut of £3.45million, which, in line with the rest of his Juve team-mates, will help the serie A giants save up to £100m from March until May.

But a player of Ronaldo's calibre has a number of projects off the field of play that cash-in on his profile as one of the best footballers in the history of the game. That success means he is still on the brink of taking his career earnings into the billions this year.

According to Forbes, Ronaldo earned a staggering £89m last year but his Juventus wages accommodate for marginally over half of that income at about £53m, once bonuses are all counted.

Forbes adds that Ronaldo earns around £36m a year from his endorsements, including his sponsorship agreement with Nike, his underwear brand and an array of other advertising projects such as footwear and cologne. He has also appeared on the front cover of the FIFA 19 video game.

And with his earnings from those ventures all still set to roll in this year, it means the Portuguese star is in line to become footballs first billion dollar man - and shows just how marginal his £3.45m pay cut will turn out to be for him.

Juventus talisman Cristiano Ronaldo will become the third sportsman in the world after golf star Tiger Woods and boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr to have earned $1bn during his career.

The Old Lady announced a massive pay cut to help them during a period with loss of revenue, but it won’t affect the Portuguese superstar too much.

Thanks to the brand that is CR7, he exclusively earned about €100m only in 2019, but in his career, he is expected to reach the $1bn club in 2019-20, even with the three-month pay cut at the Bianconeri.

Only Barcelona star Lionel Messi earned more than Cristiano Ronaldo last season, but the fact that the 35-year-old has almost played 18 seasons of professional football helps him become the first-ever footballer to reach $1bn during his career.

Business Insider also reports that Roger Federer will become the first billionaire in tennis this year.

Only golf and boxing champions have reached numbers that level of the active players, whilst basketball legend Michael Jordan is the third member currently in the club.