Cristiano Ronaldo is the first billionaire in football history The Portuguese is the first to reach this milestone with the $105 million earned in the last year

After finishing ''only'' second in the ranking of the highest paid athletes of the year according to Forbes, Cristiano Ronaldo, making $105 million last year, however, became the first player ever to exceed $1 billion in revenue.

The Portuguese Juventus player is only the third athlete who during his career in activity manages to exceed this quota, anticipated only by Tiger Woods, who succeeded in 2009 - and to influence was his sponsorship agreement with Nike - and from Floyd Mayweather, who in 2017 earned most of her assets through the pay-per-view rights of her encounters.

But, although both players have won (almost) everything both individually and as a team, and despite the dilemma as to who the ''strongest player in the world'' is, it will remain an unsolved question, there is no doubt about who - among the two - be able to better exploit their image off the pitch: led by his agent Jorge Mendes, Ronaldo has accumulated an ever-growing following of fans because of his appearance and his activities, becoming the first person to reach 220 million followers on Instagram, as he crowns him as the most popular man in the world.