Cristiano Ronaldo, The World's Highest-Paid Athlete, Is Underpaid

Cristiano Ronaldo is the biggest star in the biggest sport on the planet, and he’s paid handsomely for being so. In the last 12 months he earned $88 million to rank as the world’s highest paid athlete, the first footballer to do so.

That is quite a living for playing a kid’s game. It’s enough to split up among an entire soccer team, with money leftover to pay their opponent’s team too. But still, Ronaldo may be underpaid

To clarify, he is fairly compensated for his work on the pitch. The two-footed striker made $56 million in salary and bonus from Real Madrid,the most valuable soccer club in the world worth $3.6 billion. He is contracted to make over $50 million through the 2017-2018 season. That is the going rate for being soccer’s best player right now, or at least Real’s all-time leading scorer who has racked up more than 50 goals in each of his last six seasons, who won the Champions League for his club last month, their second in three years, when he kicked a decisive penalty kick, and who has three FIFA best player of the year awards and four European Golden Shoes in his personal trophy case.

Just look at what his rival Lionel Messi, the second highest paid athlete in the world with $81.4 million, makes from his club for comparison. The record-holding five time FIFA best player of the year got paid $53.4 million from Barcelona, the second most valuable in the worldworth $3.5 billio

n. The negligible difference between these soccer superstars 7-figure weekly pay stubs shows basic economics are at work: the two best footballers in the world make the two highest salaries on the pitch from the two richest billion-dollar clubs in the world.

Evidence exists though that Ronaldo is being slighted off the pitch.

The 31-year old with poster boy good looks and a chiseled physique makes $32 million as a human billboard for a global portfolio of sponsors including:  Nike NKE +0.31%, Tag Heuer, Clear men’s hair products, Roc headphones, Herbalife , PokerStars, his personal line of CR7 underwear, shirts, shoes, and namesake fragrance, suits and hotels (under construction). It is hard to find another athlete, or celebrity, with their name or face associated to as many products; and still there is no sign he has reached the point of saturating the market with his image. Just last summer Singapore billionaire Peter Lim’s Mint Media purchased Ronaldo’s image rights in an estimated $40 million, 6-year deal and with a goal to grow his brand in Asia.