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With the European Championship winding down and Portugal, one of the betting favorites, eliminated weeks ago following their 1-0 loss to Belgium in the Round of 16, we wonder, where does this leave world-renowned player Cristiano Ronaldo? Continue reading to uncover his true impact on soccer and business in the world as a whole.
A man with a lifetime of impact, on and off the field.
With his career coming to an end, Ronaldo, has now been a spectator for a long time and in spite of only playing in half of his possible matches, the former champion left the Euros with no hardware but an impressive five goals in four games. Ronaldo nevertheless left his mark on more than one level with his top-tier solo performance at this year's tournament.
Only one day ahead of Portugal’s convincing 3-0 win over Group F underdogs Hungary, Ronaldo moved two bottles of Coca-Cola out of the camera frame during his June 16 press conference. This action pushed Coca-Cola's share price down $4 billion. Just one seemingly meaningless action caused the soft drink Company's shares to plummet. Overall, their market worth decreased from $242 billion to $238 billion, and when trading closed two days later, the company's stock was down from $55.2 to $54.67 per share.
French Midfielder Paul Pogba followed the trend by moving a bottle of Heineken at his press conference but instead, the share price increased around 0.3% closing on 59.93 per share further proving Ronaldo's elite level of stardom.
Just how much influence does Ronaldo have?
Currently sitting as the number one most followed individual on Instagram with 309 million followers, followed by Lionel Messi almost 100 million followers behind at 225 million, Ronaldo’s international following continues to prove his impact and prestige on some of the world’s most established corporations.
As stated before not only does Ronaldo smash his Instagram competition but he is also the first person to have over 500 million followers on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter combined. If that doesn’t make you think Ronaldo is in a league of his own, the next statistics are astonishing. His following count is 85% greater than that of PSG's Neymar, one of the most marketed athletes in the world. Ronaldo also has more followers than Major League Baseball, its teams, and all of its athletes combined (315 million), and more than twice as many as the NHL, its teams, and athletes (187 million).
Can he play on the same field as A-List Celebrities?
Not only does Ronaldo rock the boat in terms of athlete earnings, standing at number three in 2021, but he also ranked at number four for all celebrity earnings in 2020 at $105 million, extending his reach further than just soccer fans. Ronaldo stacks up against A-list media names such as Kanye West and Kylie Jenner.
In light of social media's power today and the increasing popularity of our world's top athletes, more and more companies and sponsors will have to carefully plan their advertisements and product placements to prevent more accidents like this in the future.
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