Cristiano Ronaldo Beats LeBron James As Twitter's Most Valuable Athlete Endorser

Cristiano Ronaldo is the world’s most valuable athlete endorser on Twitter topping some of his peers in soccer and NBA superstar LeBron James.

Lionel Messi has recently stated that his eternal rival Ronaldo is “predatory striker” and seeing him score goals is quite normal regardless of his age. However, it is also proven that Ronaldo’s charisma has always been one of his assets as a world-class athlete.

With an army of almost 400 million followers across all platforms, Ronaldo is the most followed athlete on social media. And while this category doesn’t show up in the stats, this unanimously puts Ronaldo on top of Messi and all his peers.

Unbelievably, a whopping 196 million people follow the Portuguese star via Instagram. What’s even more surprising is that the said figure happened to be the combined population of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Belgium or in simpler terms, 2.5% of planet Earth’s human race.

After conquering Instagram, “CR7” now dominates another mainstream social media platform. According to a recent report from social media marketing firm Opendorse via Fox Business, Ronaldo has the world’s most valuable Twitter posts any athlete endorser.

Based on the firm’s calculations, t he 35-year-old soccer superstar who plays for Italian club Juventus generates an equivalent advertising value of $868,604 per tweet. Boasting a nearly 82 million followers on Twitter, this goes to show that Ronaldo is still way ahead of his peers in soccer even on social media. In fact, his Twitter posts value average is roughly $200,000 more valuable than his nearest competitor.

Spanish soccer star Andres Iniesta ranked second on Opendorse’s list with an estimated value per Twitter post of $590,825. Iniesta plays for Japanese soccer club Vissel Kobe. Fellow footballer Neymar of Brazil ranked third at $478,138.

The only NBA player who came close to Ronaldo’s worth is Los Angeles Lakers superstar James. He was the only American-born athlete to earn a spot in the top five. According to the same computations, each of James’ Twitter posts are worth an estimated $470,356 to brand partners.

Widely considered as an international sports icon with crossover appeal, Ronaldo has parlayed his fame into an array of endorsement deals. This includes partnerships with world-famous sports apparel brand Nike, streaming services DAZN and Herbalife. According to Forbes, the Portuguese legend was the world’s second-highest-paid athlete in 2019 with overall earnings of $109 million, including a notable $44 million from endorsements.