Cristiano Ronaldo: Nobody is worth that much
The world has gone mad. That was the first thought which came to mind when seeing the figures which Cristiano Ronaldo was set to be paid for signing with Saudi Arabian side AlNassr.
The 37-year-old footballing superstar will, according to reports, earn €195 million per year at his new club, making him the highest-earning sportsman in the world.
The money is split so that €70 million is for actually playing football, and the remaining €125 million is for commercial deals and image rights. His contract is for two and a half years, meaning that Ronaldo will make around €480 million by the time it expires.
We can break the figures down to give a bit more context: Ronaldo’s salary works out to €16.8 million per month; or €4.1 million per week; or €581,000 per day; or €404 every minute.
The numbers are nothing short of ludicrous. In a world where financial inequality remains rampant and where the system in many countries is rigged to favour those with more, and make life even more difficult for those with less, it is nothing short of ridiculous that this amount of money would be spent on a footballer, or on anyone for that matter.
Football once was a people’s game: a sport enjoyed by the many, and accessible by all. Today it has become a commercial animal where it has become prohibitively expensive to even watch your favourite team.
The spirit of football is long gone, lost in the millions and billions pumped into it by the few. The people’s game has today become the plaything of billionaires or of countries with questionable track records that will stop at nothing to make themselves look good. The Cristiano Ronaldo contract is only further proof of that.
Saudi Arabia’s track record as a country is known to all: an oil-driven country best known in recent years for waging an atrocity-ridden war in Yemen, the assassination of a well-known journalist, and for generally clamping down on freedom of speech, in addition to having very little to speak of in terms of women’s rights.
Yet it attempts to launder its reputation through sports. State-oil company Aramco is a title sponsor for Formula 1, while the country paid big money for a race to be held over there in the past couple of years. The Saudi state acquired historical English football club Newcastle United, and is now expected to launch a bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup much like one of its Gulf neighbours Qatar just did.
Having Cristiano Ronaldo play football in Saudi Arabia is another chapter in this sportswashing.
There were calls directly to Ronaldo to speak out against Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses while he is there, but it is highly unlikely that this will actually happen.
Cristiano Ronaldo may be one of the biggest superstars on the planet, and have massive commercial sway – one only needs to see images circulating recently of how Al-Nassr’s Instagram following jumped, overtaking several well established world-class clubs elsewhere upon Ronaldo’s signing – but that amount of money being spent and the connotations surrounding the deal are astonishing. There are few adjectives strong enough to describe it.
Nobody – not even if its Cristiano Ronaldo – is worth that much.
It would be so much better if money like this were used for the benefit of those who are less fortunate – but alas, this is the world we live in today.