Premier League - Ronaldo's £106m pay bonanza

Eurosport - Fri, 12 Jun 14:10:00 2009

Cristiano Ronaldo is set to earn £106 million from his six-year deal at Real Madrid, with a mind-boggling final salary of £556,000-a-week.

2008 Cristiano Ronaldo - 0

The Portuguese star is on the verge of a move to the Bernabeu after Manchester United accepted a world record £80m bid for him on Thursday.

He will discuss a contract with the Spanish giants when he returns from holiday in Los Angeles, and will land the biggest contract in football history.

Real are expected to offer a structured deal starting at £183,000-a-week, but with a 25 per cent rise every season seeing his pay soar above half a million pounds every week in the final year of his contract.

Based on current exchange rates, Ronaldo's will be the fifth-largest contract in sports history behind four baseball deals.

The biggest belongs to Alex Rodriguez, who signed a 10-year, $275m (£167m) deal with the New York Yankees in 2008, equating to an average annual salary of £16.7m; slightly less than Ronaldo.

Rodriguez's previous $252m (£153m) contract with the Texas Rangers comes in at number two, while A-Rod's Yankees team-mates Derek Jeter ($189/10 years) and Mark Teixeira ($180m/eight years) both exceed Ronaldo, whose likely £106m contract is worth $174m.

Football's highest earner is David Beckham, who rakes in £27m per year, but only £4m comes from his club LA Galaxy; the rest is sponsorship and merchandising.

Ronaldo was fourth on a recently-published France Football list of the sport's highest earners behind Beckham, Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho, but he can expect his £15.5m total earnings from 2008 to increase significantly following his move to Madrid.

Ronaldo's possible £556,000-a-week wage in the last year of his contract works out at:

£79,428 a day

£3,309 an hour

£55 a minute

92p per second

Or, if Real Madrid play two games in a week:

£51.48 per second on the pitch.

What can Ronaldo buy with his total £106m Real Madrid contract?

- A Big Mac for every man, woman and child in the United Kingdom.

- 530 new Ferrari 599 GTBs, like the one he wrote off in a crash earlier this year.

- Himself, with enough change for Carlos Tevez.

- Newcastle United Football Club.

- 588,000 hours in a tanning salon.

- 34,754,098 tubes of Brylcreem wet look hair gel.

- 42,400 ceiling mirrors.

- The most expensive house in Los Angeles, which belongs to TV producer Aaron Spelling, a three-story mansion with 56,500 square feet of space and a 4.6 acre estate.

- 163,077 bottles of Cristal champagne for himself and Paris Hilton at Hollywood nightspot My House.

- 26,500,000 inflatable donkeys.

- 10,610,610 pairs of Cristiano Ronaldo pyjamas.

- 706,666,667 telephone votes for Cristiano Ronaldo as Overseas Sports Personality of 2009.

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Alex Chick / Eurosport

Comment 493 - 512 of 572

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  1. you are just jealous @#$%.if was Beckham would be OK.

    From robertinho, on Sat 13 Jun 4:40AM

  2. I should imagine that Ronaldo could write better­ comments (with the correct spelling) than any of the­ above critics-even in his highly paid sleep! Let's­ look on the bright side,with Drogba going,we might have­ a league with no cheats.

    From paul_spoors, on Sat 13 Jun 3:42AM
  3. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    every one should be happy for him, god gave him the­ talent, so he gets paid for it, so stop beingt­ jealouse, good on him

    From MOHAMMED, on Sat 13 Jun 3:33AM

  4. everybody gets paid while sleeping just take a­ calculator see how much you earn a day and devide it by­ 24 hours, got the idea ? now every one of you get paid­ while sleeping some a fiver some a tenner and so on :-)­ finally diving on the pitch in the premiership will be­ reduced by a half until someone from somewhere buys­ Drop-ga sorry Drogba i mean

    From Ahmed, on Sat 13 Jun 3:06AM

  5. Another article which just proves Alex Chick is far too­ inept to write a decent football article

    From Creaven91, on Sat 13 Jun 2:59AM

  6. Like i said Bill Gate must be like this is chump­ change, Warren Buffet anyone, Carlos Slim, i mean­ really Ronaldo's money is nothing compared to folk­ flossing 40 BILLION , 37 Billion and 35 Billion. ­ People have to remember he came a broke down shack so­ off course this is like heaven to him.

    From janice m, on Sat 13 Jun 2:46AM

  7. Ok....so we're all miffed about the money and we­ should all accept the fact that without our own sub to­ sky tv the cash would'nt be there in the first­ place ......SO is anyone willing to cancel their sky­ package? I will today......anyone else want to cancel­ theirs and send the message to the money men? start the­ revolution today!!

    From jhn.parsons, on Sat 13 Jun 2:38AM

  8. good luck to REAL, prima donnas all flock together.. I­ think Ronaldo feels he is already BIG than a MU team..A­ very good move by ALEX. In this deal MU and Ronaldo is­ both laughing to the bank... The next thing REAL has to­ buy is a lot of GLUE to get the 11 players in the pitch­ to stick together as a team ...not operate as­ individual STAR which all of them are...

    From goldentipster, on Sat 13 Jun 2:36AM

  9. !!!ANTIMADRIDISTA!!!

    From damnsoldja, on Sat 13 Jun 1:52AM

  10. At the end of the day we can't slate the guy if any­ of us were offered silly amounts of money to do a job­ we would take it. Some will say he is greedy some will­ say go for it yes we do have poverty in the world and­ wages like this are obscene but do we see anyone that­ earns a silly amount of money helping these countries­ out NO we don't. the clubs themselves could do it­ will they though again NO. So why do we talk about it i­ have to say that the green eyed monster is coming out­ with everyone, but the bubble will burst at some point­ with football and these big clubs that are offering­ players obscene amounts of money will start feeling the­ pinch at some point. another question i would like to­ put to people is who is to blame for these players­ getting these huge wage packets? it is my belief that­ it is us the supporters who are to blame think about it­ if we all started to stop buying shirts and going to­ the games paying the sports channels where would the­ money come from? it wouldn't be there ticket prices­ and shirt prices would come down and so would the­ wages. so i will say to him good luck while it lasts.

    From Mark, on Sat 13 Jun 1:45AM

  11. 106 MILLION AND STILL A @#$%.

    From clive, on Sat 13 Jun 1:35AM

  12. one word disgusting, in the countrys and worlds present­ climate absolutly outrageous and in a couple years­ madrid will just get rid of the clubs debts again and­ be aloud to continue without punishment. far play to­ ronaldo if he can get it but what about the clubs end­ of year accounts just look at whats being said about­ liverpool but they aint got a royal family or­ government to white wash there accounts.

    From Zac B, on Sat 13 Jun 1:33AM

  13. 106 MILLION AND STILL A @#$%.

    From clive, on Sat 13 Jun 1:33AM

  14. WHOA!!! £51.48 a second on a pitch!!

    From Monica, on Sat 13 Jun 1:30AM

  15. good riddance to bad rubbish

    From Angelos, on Sat 13 Jun 1:23AM

  16. There are people who work like slaves everyday and they­ cant even come up with 50 quid and here is a man who­ will be making 55 quid a minute even when he is asleep.­ What a funny world we live in. I am not player hating­ but i think there are people in the world who need the­ money he will be paid when he is not kicking the ball­ more than he does. Mostely when he is sleeping. I mean,­ who gets paid for sleeping. This is outrageous

    From Bera Edi, on Sat 13 Jun 1:22AM

  17. oh ronaldo hope you buy an island in the philippines ­ please buy the jolo ang basilan island and make it a­ football field so abusayaf will go no more lol

    From MUKLO, on Sat 13 Jun 1:15AM

  18. whoao what a good money!

    by Agidi

    From alaba, on Sat 13 Jun 1:08AM

  19. Oh my God,wat a wonderful man ive been waiting for.Is­ he single,im married but will quit my man for him. Give­ me the chance i will prove the good wife i am,ive­ started loving you this moment and its crazy.Let me say­ a short prayer,God forgive me for changing my mind for­ my 15 years marriage and direct this man to find no one­ but me.I thank u God for u have given him already to­ me.Use that money carefully man.

    From alaba, on Sat 13 Jun 12:45AM

  20. Oh please don't blame Cristiano for this price @#$%­ it didn't start with him and people know it back­ when Zidane was sold for what 46 million everyone was­ all about breaking records now its double you people­ want to suddenly talk about people being hungry get a­ grip. The game is expensive and so is the service,­ football players are a BRAND and if you work it smart­ you can make a lot of money and put you fingers in a­ hell of a lot of pies, why front on a football player­ when there big busniesses out there exploiting young­ kids working them like horses for the t-shirts we where­ please get of your high moral code and shut up, the­ subject of Cristiono is becoming so sold so quickly. ­ Yes his AGENT is a smart man and United why the hell­ would they turn down 80million knowing that Ronaldo­ will have such high expectation to do what he did at­ United for them, i wish him the best of luck because he­ is going to have to work for every euro of the­ 80million. That is what you people miss him getting­ that money is not so he can go get a nice tan his @#$%­ will have to work to not disappoint and they will­ expect so much probably the impossible and he has to­ live with that, with a high price tag comes­ expectations which most won't be willing to wait­ for it form Ronaldo will ahve to hit the ground­ running, United didn't have that expection because­ we acpeted he had talent and when he shone it was good­ when he didn't we still had 10 other men on the­ pitch, where as Real are looking to him to solve all­ their problems. Let him go and learn.

    From janice m, on Sat 13 Jun 12:39AM
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