There has been no rivalry like Messi and Ronaldo in the history of world football . They have created a war that has lasted for more than a decade, especially during their time at Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Between Messi and Ronaldo there are a total of 13 Ballons d’Or – 8 for La Pulga, 5 for CR7 – as well as aiming for the milestone of 1,000 goals in their professional careers.

The competition between Messi and Ronaldo as businessmen is also very interesting.

Businessman Messi

From Barca to PSG, and now Inter Miami, Messi has consistently been among the highest paid players in the world. From his huge income from football alone, the Argentina captain has built his own commercial empire.

Messi is estimated to have a net worth of $650 million, the second highest among self-employed footballers (excluding Faiq Bolkiah, nephew of the Sultan of Brunei).

One of Messi’s notable milestones is his lifetime contract with Adidas, which allows him to receive $32 million per year. The two sides create their own products, the exclusive brand “Adidas Messi”.

But Messi’s biggest breakthrough was a deal with Major League Soccer (MLS) and Apple TV, which has exclusive broadcasting rights to the tournament.

Apple TV is the first to directly link a player’s earnings to a streaming subscription service, allowing Messi to take a percentage of the revenue from each match, including services used directly in the stands (such as food, drinks, etc.).

Messi has a specific plan after retiring from football with a franchise contract, the deciding factor that led him to reject Saudi Arabian football and choose David Beckham’s Inter Miami, to establish a new club in the future.

Messi’s commercial network also includes a four-star hotel in Barcelona, where he develops local cultural tourism; his own beverage brand and a clothing line launched in 2019.

Messi establishes a closed commercial loop, for his own consumer base, mainly based on Latin culture.

Cristiano’s Commercial Empire

Ronaldo is behind Messi in terms of Ballon d’Or, but is ahead in terms of net worth. The Portuguese star owns assets worth 800 million USD.

In addition to being an admired football star, Ronaldo is also the highest-earning player of all time (not counting Faiq Bolkiah, of course).

Ronaldo transcends the scope of football. He is the athlete who laid the foundation for industrial personal brand management. This surpasses even David Beckham.

The CR7 brand is one of the factors that helped him receive a salary of 220 million USD per year (200 million euros), when joining Al-Nassr. No one has ever reached this figure in all eras.

Ronaldo’s commercial empire far surpasses Messi’s, allowing him to receive a lifetime contract with Nike worth $1 billion.

Cristiano is very financially savvy, as evidenced by his various investments that have always been successful. This includes Ursu9 bottled water, or his collaborations with global brands Herbalife and Clear Shampoo.

Ronaldo’s business activities are diverse and follow the general trend of the world. He owns the CR7 hotel chain, the Insparya hair transplant and examination center, and the Pestana CR7 fashion brand.

In short, Ronaldo thrives on the social side: hospitality, healthcare and fashion.

As a player beyond his years, Ronaldo collaborated with WHOOP to develop fitness tracking devices; invested in the UFL football simulation game to seize the opportunity to step into the surreal world of sports.

Ronaldo is the first person, in any field of sport or entertainment, to have more than 1 billion followers on social media platforms. This is the basis for him to develop his commercial “universe”, for example, he and his girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez have their own YouTube channel.

Not only that, Ronaldo recently became a film producer, when he and director Matthew Vaughn (UK) founded the film studio UR·Marv, with the ambition to “revolutionize conventional cinema” .

UR·Marv is expected to make a big splash in the near future, as Vaughn and Ronaldo have several major projects in development, including two new films in the Kingsman franchise.

Football in particular and sports in general are constantly changing over time, but Cristiano Ronaldo is the only one who has brought sports branding to the level of mass production in industry.

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