The ROI of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Transfer Fees
A recent football transfer rumour involving Cristiano Ronaldo has sent shockwaves all over the world. Manchester United placed a bid in the region of 156 million pounds for the best player in the world!
Update July 2018: Cristiano Ronaldo officially signs for Juventus for a fee in the region of £88.3m
Purely looking at it from a football point of view, you would think that this is a rather astronomical sum for a 32-year-old who is reaching the end of his career.
But for Manchester United, a lot more factors than just football goes into such this seemingly crazy decision. They look at the overall ROI (Return on Investment).
In the following, we consider a couple of factors that Manchester United would have probably considered before they made that bid.
1) Merchandising Sales
Just a season ago, Manchester United bought back Paul Pogba for a world record transfer fee of 89 million pounds. Sales from Pogba’s merchandising had generated 179 million pounds within just three weeks.
Paul Pogba might be a great player, but his popularity is nowhere near Cristiano Ronaldo’s. Thus in this aspect, Ronaldo would probably be able to generate substantially more revenue within the same period. And there’s more!
2) Social Media Following
One of the biggest assets for today’s modern superstar footballer is their social media following. A channel which can generate substantial revenue for them for many years to come even after retiring from football.
According to a report from Forbes, Cristiano Ronaldo’s earnings on social media amounted to 176 million last year. In this aspect, the club will also receive a chunk of revenue from social media campaigns where he appears as a United player.
3) Marketing Campaigns
As the world’s best-supported football club, some of the world’s biggest brands are more than happy to pay the club millions for their involvement in their marketing campaigns. In the event that Ronaldo becomes a United player; you can bet that the cost of a campaign that involves Cristiano Ronaldo could fetch millions in revenue for the club.
4) Sponsorships
Another way the football club makes money is through sponsorships. In 2014, Manchester United signed a seven-year, $559 million contract with Chevrolet and this is just one of the many sponsorship deals that the club receives every year.
A Manchester United + Cristiano Ronaldo combination is sure to send major brands scurrying onto the sponsorship bandwagon, adding additional hundreds of millions more to Manchester United’s coffers.
5) Football
Last and certainly not least, Football: the main reason why Manchester United is willing to splash out so much money.
Even as he approaches the end of his career as a 32-year-old, he is still widely considered as the best player in the world and still has at least 3 good seasons left in him. But whether or not Ronaldo can bring United back to their glory days remains to be seen, but you can be sure Old Trafford will be at full capacity all season long. Plus, also taking into account the truckload of revenue generated from TV broadcasting.
So if you were previously sceptical about the value of his transfer fees, the previous points would surely validate the value of this transaction!
Also, check out this interesting infographic that details Cristiano Ronaldo against his greatest nemesis, Lionel Messi!
Infographic Source: betting-sites.me.uk
