Not only is the five-time Ballon d’Or and Champions League winner by far the biggest earner in the league, but he earns more than three times as much as anyone else.
Gonzalo Higuain, who joined AC Milan from Juventus after Ronaldo arrived in Turin, is the next best paid, raking in €9.5 million (£9m/$11m) per season.
No one can really claim to have a bulletproof idea of what Ronaldo is worth except his management company, but most sources estimate the figure to be between £200m and £250m.
According to Forbes, Ronaldo is the third highest earning athlete this 2018, with his earnings at $108M. He also ranked 10th in the Forbes list of top 100 highest earning celebrities.
It would be unfair to say Ronaldo does not strive to put some of his fortune towards the greater good – in fact, in 2015 he was recognised by Dosomething.org as the most charitable sports star in the world.
The website acclaimed Ronaldo for using his fame to promote “a variety of causes including childhood hunger, obesity and biodiversity” and highlighted an $83,000 donation to a 10-year-old fan in need of brain surgery as well as a $165,000 contribution to a cancer centre in Portugal that treated his mother.
After the 2016 Champions League final, it was reported that the ex-Manchester United man instructed his agent Jorge Mendes to donate his €600,000 win bonus to a non-governmental organisation. Ronaldo has supported the likes of UNICEF, World Vision and Save the Children in the past.
