Cristiano Ronaldo started his legendary soccer career back in 2003 after playing his first game for Manchester United at the age of just 17. Since then, the Portuguese athlete has manifested quite the attention around his name after helping bring 3 Premier League titles, 2 League Cups, an FA Cup, and a Champions League title home to the first club that took a chance on him. He made the executive decision to leave the club later in 2009 in order to further extend his historic career at Real Madrid; he played for the Spain based team for a total of nine seasons before making his way over to Juventus for 100 million euros ($117.9 million), back in 2018.
However, Ronaldo recently made the decision to “go back home” as he previously made the agreement to head back to England’s Manchester United for a sum of 15 million euros ($17.3 million). The 36-year-old athlete took an obvious pay cut with this contract, but it has not seemed to bother him as his main concern is with his family and playing for whatever team he is on to the best of his ability. With this transfer, and Manchester United jersey sales skyrocketing, the striker officially became the “best selling player on the Fanatics Sports merchandise site.”
Before the transfer, Cristiano was in a neck-and-neck battle between newly declared Paris Saint Germain player, Lionel Messi, for the top spot of being soccer’s highest-paid player. Messi recently agreed to leave the comfort of his one and only team F.C. Barcelona to Paris’ PSG due to the club not being able to afford the athlete anymore; PSG paid no money to his former club. This move enabled a superteam in Paris as Messi met up with his former teammate, Neymar Jr. while planning on bringing a championship title home to their new team. Lionel Messi is reeling in approximately $110 million of annual income compared to Cristiano Ronaldo’s $125 million.