The game of football has a high viewership over 250 million and the footballers earn a lot from huge amount of salaries, endorsements, etc. Also national events like the World Cup are the best source of advertisements and promotion and who can do it better than the footballers themselves!
The 2014 Ballon d’or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo has become the highest paid footballer in the world. He is also placed third in the Forbes’ 2015 list of the world’s highest paid athletes and is behind fellow boxers Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. He has edged past Lionel Messi when it comes to earnings with an impeccable $79.6 m whereas the latter is just behind him with annual earnings of $73.8m.
Ronaldo is said to have earned $52m excluding the endorsements of $27m in the 2015 campaign. Nike, Samsung, Emirates, Tag Heuer are some of his major sponsors for whom he has appeared in many advertisements. He also launched his own underwear company named CR7 which surely augments his income per year. He also has contract with Real Madrid for 5 years with a net worth of over $200m.
The list continues with big names like Ibrahimovic, Bale, Neymar but earnings do not tell us anything about the value of the player. But as far as this is concerned, the mighty Portuguese tops the list and beats them all.
