Cristiano Ronaldo was paid a substantial amount of money from a firm in Saudi Arabia long before his lucrative switch to Al Nassr.
Back in January 2022, Ronaldo ditched European football to sign with Saudi Professional League side Al Nassr.
The former Manchester United and Real Madrid forward is a marketing machine and has brought new eyes to football in the Middle East.
On the pitch, he’s scored 27 goals in 32 appearances across all competitions, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner is still going strong at the ripe old age of 38.
With his salary broken down, Ronaldo is essentially earning £514,000 per day and £21,400 per hour. But incredibly, the rates are much cheaper there than what a company forked out for his services back in 2017.
The eye-opening Football Leaks book from by Der Spiegel journalists Rafael Buschmann and Michael Wulzinger uncovered details on how much it costs to hire one of the most famous people in the world.
The book reveals that Mobily, a Saudi telecoms business, struck a deal with Ronaldo’s Irish image rights company, Multisports & Image Management.
They would get four-and-a-half hours of his time, and this comprised of a photo-shoot, five signed shirts and two plugs across his social media channels, where he is said to earn around £1.6 million per sponsored post.
Mobily were allowed to use images that were taken on the day, but the advertising was only regional as the publication was limited to the Middle East and North Africa area.
For all of the above, Ronaldo and his representatives charged the company an enormous £920,000.
Not too shabby at all.
So far in the 23/24 season, Al Nassr have picked up 12 points from their opening six games as they currently sit sixth in the table.
