Cristiano Ronaldo: Football's First Billionaire Player
How Cristiano Ronaldo went from childhood poverty to record-breaking footballer and one of the most recognisable people on the planet.
How did the richest people on the planet make their billions? Find out with Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service.
Cristiano Ronaldo grew up in poverty on the remote island of Madeira, but became the first footballer player billionaire, and one of the most recognisable people on the planet. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng trace Ronaldo's rise from a homesick kid playing for the academy at Sporting CP, to global superstardom at Manchester United and Real Madrid, where relentless training and record-breaking performances turned him into a sporting and commercial machine.
Zing and Simon explore the business of modern football: from mega transfers and billion-dollar brand deals, to tax battles and legal disputes. Ronaldo leveraged social media fame to build his CR7 empire, so is he the ultimate self-made success story, a divisive global brand, or simply the most effective monetiser of talent in sporting history?
