Cristiano Ronaldo on track to become football’s first $1BILLION man despite

Cristiano Ronaldo is doing his bit to help Juventus save money during the coronavirus outbreak but due to the astronomical success of his business ventures away from the pitch, he’s unlikely to notice the financial hit.

Ronaldo has taken a pay cut of £3.45million, which, in line with the rest of his Juve team-mates, will help the Serie A giants save up to £100m from March until May.

But a player of Ronaldo’s calibre has a number of projects off the field of play that cash-in on his profile as one of the best footballers in the history of the game. That success means he is still on the brink of taking his career earnings into the billions this year.

Cristiano Ronaldo has mirrored his success on the football pitch in his business ventures away from it and is in line to become the game’s first ever billionaire player 

Ronaldo, pictured alongside his partner Georgina Rodriguez last November, earns around £36m a year through endorsements and advertising a number of products

Ronaldo has a number of lucrative projects away from football, including his underwear range

According to Forbes, Ronaldo earned a staggering £89m last year but his Juventus wages accommodate for marginally over half of that income at about £53m, once bonuses are all counted.

Forbes adds that Ronaldo earns around £36m a year from his endorsements, including his sponsorship agreement with Nike, his underwear brand and an array of other advertising projects such as footwear and cologne. He has also appeared on the front cover of the FIFA 19 video game.

And with his earnings from those ventures all still set to roll in this year, it means the Portuguese star is in line to become footballs first billion dollar man – and shows just how marginal his £3.45m pay cut will turn out to be for him.

Ronaldo’s underwear brand is just one of a number of business ventures that he oversees 

Last year, Ronaldo was on the front cover of the extremely popular video game FIFA 19

Ronaldo also has his own CR7 aftershave that contributes to his astronomical level of income

Ronaldo, Forbes say, would become only the third active sportsman to crack $1bn after Floyd Mayweather and Tiger Woods – both of whom have had much longer careers in boxing and golf than Ronaldo, 35, will ever have playing football.

The staggering figures also serve to underline…