Ronaldo spent the past nine seasons with Real Madrid.GETTY IMAGES
After nine years with Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo, "arguably the most marketable man in football," is joining Juventus for a fee of €100M ($117M), according to Ben Londesbrough of CAMPAIGN LIVE. Ronaldo has a "wide social media influence and is noted for his many and varying endorsement deals." With 74.5 million followers on Twitter and 134 million on Instagram, he "became the first athlete to reach 200 million combined followers across all platforms," according to Hookit. With a "social media net that wide, the revenue and interaction Ronaldo can score is huge." But "what does this transfer coup mean to the player himself and Juventus as a club and brand?" Sports and entertainment agency Cake CEO Adrian Pettett "questioned the deal" now that "[Ronaldo’s] best playing years are behind him." Pettett: "Are Juve buying a player or investing in a marketing asset? Ronaldo is a media publisher in his own right, with follower numbers and a level of global fame that is arguably more valuable in the short term than Juve’s." As for the deal, Ronaldo will "pivotally retain his shirt number seven, allowing him to uphold his lucrative CR7 brand," which is reportedly worth €100M. In '15, Ronaldo "poured" €75M ($87.8M) into luxury hotel group Pestana to build four CR7 hotels, with one open in Madeira, Portugal, and another in Lisbon. For Juventus, "the deal represents a near completion of its business and brand building plan," which started after the club’s relegation from Serie A for a game-rigging scandal in '06. However, it is "not all cash flow for Juventus." Octagon Global Head of Football Phil Carling "pointed out that while imagery of Ronaldo in a Juventus shirt will be good for exposure," commercial use of those images "would not be part of the deal." Carling added, "It is highly unlikely that either Juventus or Serie A will have contracted individual rights to utilize his I.P. nor would such rights have formulated a part of the transfer value." As for Juve’s sponsors, Bloomberg reported that car manufacturer Fiat Chrysler, whose Jeep brand is the official shirt sponsor of the club, "could see a large advertising increase in the deal" (CAMPAIGN LIVE, 7/16).
