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Aged 33, Cristiano Ronaldo signed for Juventus for €100 million which is €6 million more than what Real Madrid paid for him when he was 24-years-old. In addition, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner will earn €30 million per season with the Italian giants.
This certainly looks like a lot of money for a player in his 30s, but considering Ronaldo’s fitness, he should be able to perform at his best for a few more years at least. In addition, the financial benefits of signing Ronaldo are huge.
Although Juventus have spent a massive amount on Ronaldo, they can recoup that money with relative ease thanks to the marketing potential of the player.
For instance, Ronaldo earns £308,000 every time he posts a picture on Instagram according to a study by HopperHQ from November 2017. This made him the third highest paid celebrity when it comes to sponsored photos, the highest paid male and the highest paid athlete.
Juventus have already started to reap the benefits of signing Ronaldo. So, take a look at four ways in which the Bianconeri have profited from signing the Portuguese superstar.
#4. Season tickets sold out despite a huge hike in price
Following the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, Juventus have already sold their season tickets for the upcoming season.
According to the club, 95% of last season’s season ticket holders opted to renew and the tickets that were not renewed were sold to club members on a shortlist within hours after they went on sale on the 20th of July.
A statement on the club’s official website read:
"Such is the demand for season tickets this year that there will not be any phase of general sale for season tickets,"
"So, just under a month until the start of the season, the goal of 25,300 season tickets has already been reached, which together with the 4,000 premiums bring the total season tickets to 29,300."
The tickets were sold out almost instantly despite an average increase of 30 percent in the ticket prices and in some parts of the stadium, the hike went up to 37 percent.
#3. Shirt sales worth €54 million in 24 hours
According to reports, within 24 hours of Ronaldo’s Juventus shirts going online, the club sold over 520,000 units.
Ronaldo’s kit costs around €105, which means, the club has sold jerseys worth €54 million in 24 hours!
It doesn’t mean that all that money will go to Juventus, in fact, most of it will go to the kit supplier Adidas. But it shows the star power of Ronaldo.
To put things into perspective, when Neymar joined PSG, the club is reported to have sold 10,000 kits in the first 24 hours and 120,000 in the first month! According to ItalianFootballTV, Juventus sold just 850,000 jerseys in 2016 and they sold 520,000 Ronaldo jerseys in just 24 hours!
#2. Share prices surge
Early in July, when rumours of Ronaldo’s move was gathering pace, the benefits of a move was already visible.
On July 5, the Old Lady’s share price saw a surge of 10% and over 20% over a three day period. On the 5th of July, their shares were trading at €0.81 compared to €0.65 on June 28th.
On July 10, the day when Juventus announced the deal to sign Ronaldo, it peaked at €0.90. On July 24, it dropped to €0.88.
The fact that a mere speculation raised the club’s share prices by a big margin itself is astonishing and a peak on the day of Ronaldo’s announcement shows how much off the field benefits the club are making with the superstar.
#1. Social media growth
This may not reflect financial growth directly, but having a huge fan base on social media is now a necessity for any brand and a football club is also a brand. The large fan base on social media helps in promoting sponsorship activities, contests, merchandise sales and much more.
Ronaldo is one of the most followed individuals on social media in the world and his fan base is even larger than the clubs he represented and the one he currently represents.
According to Football Benchmark, the week between the intense speculation and Ronaldo’s arrival in Turin, Juventus gained more than 400,000 followers on their main and English Twitter accounts. There was also a rise of 400,000 followers on Facebook.
The biggest jump was on their Instagram page which saw a jump in excess of 1.4 million followers!
Ronaldo has been a Juventus player for only a few days now and he hasn’t even kicked the ball yet in Juventus colours. Give him more time and Juventus will reap more benefits of signing the global superstar.
