You Won't Believe How Much Cristiano Ronaldo Was Offered to Play in China
Some of the numbers you hear about when it comes to a star athlete’s big paycheck to play in the world’s biggest stadiums can be genuinely mindboggling at times. Some of the best players in leagues like the NFL and the NHL can take home over $100 million dollars on a contract of a few years, with the NBA going even higher than that due to the concept of soft salary caps. While the NBA, NFL, and NHL have limits on just how fat they can make their players’ pockets, we saw an even crazier free-for-all in Major League Baseball, when Alex Rodriguez for example, took home a contract with the Yankees for over $250 million. However, these state-side signings are all put to shame by the contract a professional soccer team in China offered Real Madrid soccer star, Cristiano Ronaldo, to play for them.
A Chinese soccer club that has yet to be named reached out to Ronaldo last week with a deal equating to about 400 million USD for just 3 years on their team. Now, this deal, if struck, would be one of the largest single deals in sports history, so naturally, the athletic world paid attention. When reporters reached out to Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, Mendes was quick to make everyone aware that Cristiano would not be taking up this massive offer. Mendes told Sky Sports Italia, “Money is not everything; the Spanish club is his life…The Chinese market is a new market. They can buy a lot of players, but then again it is impossible to go for Ronaldo. Cristiano is the best player in the world and best ever. It is normal to have some offers.” And it is certainly a new market indeed, one that's off to a pretty good start. A handful of talented soccer players such as Argentina’s Carlos Tevez and Brazil’s Alex Teixeira have agreed to play in the Chinese Super League for some pretty hefty dollar amounts, but nothing close to the $400 million price tag offered to Ronaldo. Do you think a top athlete will ever accept a massive fortune to play in a relatively newer league?