Cover Football star Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring during the Saudi Pro League in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Photo: Abdullah Ahmed/Getty Images)
Football star Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring during the Saudi Pro League in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Photo: Abdullah Ahmed/Getty Images)
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The world's most successful football players are also scoring big deals off the field
Call it the best type of own goal. Leading football players have increasingly extended their professional identities beyond the pitch, channelling their million-dollar earnings and personal brands into companies, investments, and commercial ventures. What was once limited to the occasional sponsorship deal or boot endorsement has, over the past two decades, evolved into a more deliberate and diversified pursuit of business interests.
For several 2026 World Cup names, these activities now constitute a substantial part of their income and public profile, though the exact nature of these ventures varies considerably. Some players have lent their names to product licensing arrangements, while others, like Cristiano Ronaldo, have founded companies spanning fashion, technology, or wellness. A select few have entered club ownership, like Kylian Mbappé, taking equity stakes in teams across Europe and the Americas.
Yet one common thread runs through these efforts: the translation of athletic fame into commercial assets that can, with the right mix of luck and good timing, potentially outlast an athletic career. Here are several World Cup stars who have emerged as businessmen in their own right.
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Cristiano Ronaldo
Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has built one of the most recognisable commercial portfolios in the sport, with an estimated net worth of US$1.2 billion, according to a report from Forbes. He became the first active football player in history to join the three-comma club, in part thanks to earnings from his lifestyle brand, CR7, which spans consumer goods like underwear, footwear, fragrances, and eyewear.
In hospitality and wellness, Ronaldo co-founded the global luxury hotel chain Pestana CR7 in partnership with the Pestana Hotel Group, which spans properties in Lisbon and New York. He also holds a major stake in hair transplant clinics under the Insparya brand, launched with businessman Paulo Ramos, and owns a chain of CR7-branded fitness gyms.
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Ronaldo's commercial reach has been amplified by his social media presence. His Instagram page, with around 665 million followers as of writing, is the most-followed individual page on the platform globally; in 2024, he became the first person to reach one billion total followers across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Chinese social media sites Weibo and Kuaishou, according to a BBC report. He is backed by a lifetime deal with Nike, alongside multi-million-dollar sponsorships with Herbalife, Clear, and Armani.
Kylian Mbappé
Kylian Mbappé has banked an estimated US$95 million annually from combined on-field and off-field earnings, according to recent estimates by Forbes. In 2020, he established Zebra Valley, a production company that announced a partnership with the NBA in 2022 to produce film and gaming content.
Mbappé founded an investment firm, Interconnected Ventures, in 2022 to drive "continuous innovation in sports, media, and investments." Through Interconnected Ventures' arm, Coalition Capital, Mbappé made headlines in 2024 by acquiring an approximately 80% majority stake in French Ligue 2 club Stade Malherbe Caen. Now, at the age of 27, the young athlete has expanded his portfolio to include sports-performance tech and wearable biometric platforms, alongside his global ambassadorships with Nike, Dior, and Hublot.
He's also a budding philanthropist: Mbappé funds and operates the Inspired by KM foundation, which supports children across the greater Paris area. The foundation became the official charity partner of the France SailGP team when Coalition Capital invested in SailGP.
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Neymar
Neymar, or Neymar Júnior, managed to build a range of endorsement and commercial interests built around his personal brand. The anchor of his commercial portfolio since 2020 has been his partnership with Puma, which began after a historic switch from a long-term relationship with Nike. Worth noting is that the Wall Street Journal reported the Nike deal ended over Neymar's refusal to cooperate with an investigation over sexual assault allegations; the footballer claims the split was caused by commercial reasons.
He's continued to be active as an official partnered streamer across major gaming platforms, known for his playthroughs of Counter-Strike and Kings League, and he also holds private equity stakes in esports-related startups. Separately, the forward has also donated earnings through the Instituto Neymar Jr., an expansive, 8,400-square-meter educational and sports complex based in Praia Grande, Brazil, which claims to serve thousands of underprivileged children and their families daily.
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Sadio Mané
Sadio Mané, who earned roughly US$54 million last year, per Forbes estimates, stands out for directing a substantial share of his commercial earnings toward structural development and community self-sufficiency. Throughout his career, he's transformed his home village of Bambali, Senegal, by funding the construction of a regional hospital, a public high school, a fuel station, a post office, and 4G internet infrastructure
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Cat Wang is an editor at Tatler Asia based in Hong Kong, where she covers business, wealth, innovation, and impact. Previously, she was a Forbes Asia reporter and assistant editor of the Forbes Asia 100 to Watch list, spotlighting startups and small companies on the rise across the Asia-Pacific. She began her career as a trainee reporter at the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s newspaper of record. Born in New York City, she graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a B.A. in political science.
