Cristiano Ronaldo beats Lionel Messi to become football’s first billion-dollar man in history

Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo’s fans now have one more topic of discussion with which they can argue with Messi fans as Ronaldo has beaten his opponent Lionel Messi off the field to become the first athlete in football history to be a billionaire.

In the previous year, with the earnings grossed 105 million dollars before taxes and fees, Ronaldo managed to get a place on the fourth spot in Forbes Celebrity 100.

The Portugal striker is the third athlete to cross the billionaire mark in the history of football. Before him, Golf legend Tiger Woods and boxer Floyd Mayweather had accomplished the goal. However, Mayweather has his income from a cut of pay per view sales for his boxing matches whereas Woods made the cut by his endorsement deal with Nike.

Projections are made that 35 years old is expected to make 765 million dollars in salary by the end of his career which will mean he has made 650 million dollars till the date.

Meanwhile, since his senior debut in 2005 for Barcelona, Messi has made a total of 605 million dollars in salaries.

Ronaldo has returned to training ahead of Italian Serie A amid coronavirus pandemic globally as he is also the most followed athlete on social media with 222.4 million followers on Instagram, 85.3 million on Twitter, and 112 million on Facebook.