Cristiano Ronaldo has signed a new deal at Real Madrid to make him the highest paid player on the planet and insisted Manchester United are ‘in the past’.
Ronaldo has put pen to paper on a five-year contract extension that will keep him at the Bernabeu until 2018.
The blockbusting deal will net the superstar a staggering £15million-a-year after tax, putting him ahead of the likes of Lionel Messi at Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the footballing rich-list.
The new agreement has been put in place to prove to Ronaldo that he is still very much the main man at Madrid, following the world record transfer of Gareth Bale.
It will also put a final nail in the coffin in United’s efforts to tempt their former ace back to the Premier League.
United were hoping that Ronaldo would sit on his current contract, which is due to expire in 2015, before agreeing to return to Old Trafford for a signing-on fee of around £50million in two years’ time.
However, the Portuguese star insists his time at United is a thing of the past and hinted he would end his career at Madrid.
‘I will be honest with you – everyone knows I was in Manchester for six years. Manchester is in the past. Now my club is Real Madrid. This is my home, my family is here and I’m really happy here.
‘I respect all the clubs who ask about me. But they always know that my decision, that my only goal is to be here and to play at this club until, maybe, the end of my career.’
Ronaldo wanted to earn $20 million a season net of Spain’s 52% tax rate when his current contract expires after the 2015 season, and during the past year Ronaldo earned a total of $44 million.
Half of Ronaldo’s earnings were from sponsors, including $9 million from Nike. One reason sponsors love Ronaldo: He is the world’s most popular athlete on Facebook, with 60 million followers.
Ronaldo’s new contract with Real Madrid is richer than the one recently given to Barcelona rival Lionel Messi, and assuming his endorsement income remains the same, will boost his total earnings to about $67 million in two years, all but insuring he will maintain his spot as the world's top paid soccer player for several more years.
Ronaldo first joined Real Madrid for the 2009-10 season and the team has made the Champions League semi-finals each of the past three years, raking in small fortune due to their performance on the pitch. And the star has also helped his team and Barcelona account for 50% of La Liga’s television revenue. Ronaldo’s new contract will now make his brand more valuable through the boost in endorsement income that will surely come from his extended stay at one of the best and most recognizable soccer teams in the world.
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