Ronaldo's transfer is a gold mine for MJ. He will bring the club tens of millions in profits
Posted by: 1-03-2023, 16:41, , 2 003, 1
A paltry 15 million euros for the transfer of the CR7 brand will pay off handsomely.
Cristiano Ronaldo's return to Manchester is all about romance, nostalgia, goals, shouts of "Si!", Instagram posts. All of this we will watch with our own eyes. It's also big business. The money issue in the context of Cristiano is more important than in the case of any other footballer on the planet. The transition of Ronaldo is a win-win business plan.
Ronaldo brought Juventus a fabulous profit
"Did I think acquiring Ronaldo was the wrong move? Never. I would have pulled that deal again tomorrow."
These are the words of Juventus president Andrea Agnelli in an interview with La Repubblica newspaper this spring. The Italian club ingloriously interrupted its hegemony in the championship, only miraculously clinging to the top-4 and a place in the Champions League. And in the most prestigious European competition, they have reached the quarter-finals only once in the three years since signing Ronaldo. Having been eliminated by Ajax, Lyon and Porto. That's quite a list. Still, Agnelli confidently claims that Ronaldo's transfer was a success, although the expected results were never achieved. True, that's only on the field.
Outside of it, Juventus have moved to a new stage of evolution. Using Cristiano as the lord of his own global brand led to instant growth in his first year in Turin. Spending a seemingly astronomical 340 million euros on the Portuguese (transfer, salary and agent bonus) is a smart investment. Just look at Juventus' statements before and after Cristiano's arrival (data from the study "From Madrid to Turin: The Ronaldo Economy"):
Ronaldo helped Juventus close the revenue gap with Real Madrid, Barcelona and MJ, but his Champions League ambitions were never realized. That is the main disadvantage of Cristiano's transfer to the Italian club.
Ronaldo's purchase is a historical legacy and a publicity stunt for 337 million people
14 times the population of Australia. Almost 2.5 times the population of Russia. More than the population of the United States. It's all about the number of Ronaldo's Instagram followers. "Juventus" in 2020 came in third place in the number of followers on this social network, ahead of "MJ".True, it now seems that we're about to see a castoff on that list. In the first hour after the announcement of the transfer of Kris, 800,000 people subscribed to the account of the Red Devils, in the next four days - another 3.1 million. Ronaldo's account post announcing his move to Juventus three years ago garnered 11 million likes, and the announcement of his return to Old Trafford is already approaching the 19 million mark. CR7 has become a bigger and bigger brand over the years, and every club dreams of touching it.
Plus 94 million followers on Twitter and 150 on Facebook. This is the most global layer of audience possible in the world of sports. A club with great resources will be able to capitalize on the dramatically increased demand - that's what Juventus did, so will UCL.
An important factor is the legacy. When Cristiano finishes his career (hard to believe, but it will happen sooner or later), he will be most associated with his most successful and last club/clubs. Millions of fans will stay to support the teams their idol played for. In this context, the marketing potential for MJ is immeasurable. Perhaps the best player in soccer history taking his first and last trophies at United is a classy story.
With his return, Ronaldo attracts a large audience of young fans who support their favorite athletes, not clubs. And there are a lot of them right now.
"Just recently there was a study that confirmed the following: in the Far East and China, people follow players more than clubs. It's very similar to the pattern in the NBA, where fans run from one team to another because LeBron James went from Miami to Cleveland and then to the Lakers. It's a trend that young fans are following. They're more committed to athletes' personalities than their teams," Essen Shah, executive director of sports marketing agency B-Engaged, told The Athletic.
