Cristiano Ronaldo was reportedly “obsessed” with the salary of his rival, Lionel Messi, which led to a falling out with his agent Jorge Mendes. According to a report by El Mundo, Ronaldo was fixated on how much Messi was earning even while he was playing for Real Madrid.
The report claims that Ronaldo, even if he can’t claim that he is the best player, wants to be the best-paid player in ‘pathological behavior.’ It adds that for years he was fixated on how much his on-field rival Lionel Messi was earning right up to the point he cornered Josep Maria Bartomeu at an awards ceremony, where he questioned the Barcelona president on how much he was paying Messi, before being told “I can’t tell you, but it’s more than double what they [Real Madrid] pay you.”
Shortly after, Ronaldo left the club with his last match seeing him win the Champions League for the third consecutive season. That summer he joined Juventus in a move worth £100m where he also increased his wages to £500,000 per week – or roughly £26.6m annually. But it was against Mendes’s advice who wanted his client to stay at Madrid where he could go on to win two more Ballon d’Or awards – an achievement he hasn’t collected since leaving the Bernabeu.
Now, Ronaldo after a turbulent spell at Manchester United has joined Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr in a move that will see the forward – who turns 38 next month – earn a cool £175million-a-year.
His move to Al-Nassr was done without any involvement from Mendes with Ronaldo’s personal manager Ricky Regufe brokering the deal instead, leaving his relationship with Mendes tatters.
