Cristiano Ronaldo was voted FIFA’s player of the year each of the past two years and three times overall. He is a goal-scoring machine with 60 or more tallies in each of the past four calendar years. Ronaldo delivers tremendous value for Real Madrid, which ranks as the world’s most valuable soccer club at $3.3 billion, and he is richly rewarded by Real with more than $50 million annually in salary and bonuses.
Ronaldo also delivers for his endorsement partners like Nike, Tag Heuer and Herbalife, who benefit from the most far-reaching presence on social media among athletes. Take Ronaldo’s work with Tag Heuer. He posted six times on Facebook over two days last year regarding the watch brand’s “Don’t Crack Under Pressure” ad campaign. The posts were viewed 35 million times with 2.4 million “likes” over two days. The posts generated an estimated value of $380,000 for Tag, according to research firm Repucom. Ronaldo counts 158 million total followers across Facebook, Twitter TWTR -3.75% and Instagram, 65 million more than Lionel Messi and Neymar, who have the next biggest followings.