Standing firm: Cristiano Ronaldo is rumoured to be
demanding more money from Real Madrid
Cristiano Ronaldo last night demanded more money from
Real Madrid before he completes his world record transfer from
Manchester United.
The astonishing £80million move - agreed a week ago - would pay
him £200,000-a-week after tax, but the 24-year-old now wants the
Spanish club to smash their image rights pay structure, too.
His agent, Jorge Mendes, is still locked in talks over bonus
payments which are based on personal sponsorship and other
commercial deals, including shirt sales, and it is understood that
he wants Madrid to give Ronaldo 55 per cent of the income he
generates.
Brazilian superstar Kaka, who has just signed from AC Milan for
£56m, will get only half of the revenue he generates and this is
the most the club usually agree to.
At that 50 per cent level, it has been estimated that Ronaldo
would enjoy 25 per cent pay increases each year as Madrid develop
more commercial deals, and it is likely that he would be commanding
an astonishing weekly wage of £557,000 by the end of his six-year
contract. And he still wants more.
That works out at more than £29m-a-year but, with the transfer
not sealed and United not due to be paid before 30 June, Mendes is
trying to improve terms. Ronaldo already has deals with companies
such as Nike and Banco Espirito Santo but his camp are reluctant to
share earnings from new endorsements even though he would receive a
cut in return from the sale of Real Madrid merchandise bearing his
name.
Madrid are expected to find another way to increase Ronaldo's
pay rather than set a divisive new precedent for their galacticos
as they prepare to present latest additions Kaka and Ronaldo
separately at the Bernabeu next month. With such an expensive
transfer they cannot concede too much more ground because club
president Florentino Perez expects to make money from the Portugal
international.
Perez was the man who signed former England skipper David
Beckham for Madrid in 2003 and made the Spanish club the richest in
the world.
They increased their commercial earnings by more than 600 per
cent on the back of the midfielder's presence and want to replicate
that success with Ronaldo.
Comparisons between Ronaldo and Beckham have been made before
and the 24-year-old, forward on the verge of becoming the world's
most expensive player, seems to enjoy the limelight as much as his
Manchester United predecessor.
Both have worn the valued United No 7 shirt and Beckham has led
the way in personal commercial deals, exploiting the celebrity
status that comes with a former pop star wife and demands from the
fashion world.
Beckham has regularly been pictured in attention-grabbing
clothes and with a range of hairstyles in much the same way Ronaldo
has this summer. He has been photographed partying late into the
night in Los Angeles this summer and enjoying the company of
socialite Paris Hilton.
