The sale of tableware may not boost Cristiano Ronaldo's fortune, but it is likely to cause him less trouble than crypto assets. The footballer has entered the designer porcelain business with the help of a historic Portuguese firm, Vista Alegre, just as it marks 200 years since its founding, according to the agreement announced a few weeks ago. The footballer from the Saudi club Al Nassr has acquired 10% of the Portuguese company and 30% of its Spanish subsidiary. The business collaboration also includes the creation of a company, 50% owned, to expand into the Asian market, taking advantage of Cristiano Ronaldo's pull around the world. Vista Alegre, with its artisanal process and artistic design, is at the antipodes of the liquid and virtual world of Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, which in 2022 partnered with the footballer to launch a collection of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), a class of crypto assets related to the star. Since then, they have already marketed four collections inspired by CR7's biography. One of the hooks to stimulate the purchase is the possibility of having a personal meeting with Ronaldo, who frequently promotes Binance on his social networks despite having been sued by a group of investors who suffered losses. In the lawsuit filed in a Florida court at the end of 2023, it is stated that the footballer «promoted, assisted and/or actively participated in the offer and sale of unregistered securities in coordination with Binance.» The three promoters of the lawsuit, which is open to other victims, are claiming more than $1 billion from Ronaldo.Table covered with Vista Alegre ceramics. Lionel Balteiro (LaMousse)Not all of his investments in the real estate sector have gone well either. In 2022, he sold the apartment he had bought in the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York, well below what he had paid. The footballer had bought a 762-square-metre apartment for 18.5 million dollars in 2015 and decided to get rid of it four years later. It was not easy for him, among other reasons due to the pandemic, and he only managed to sell it after successive price reductions until it reached 11.32 million dollars. In addition, his project to create a luxury apartment complex in Praia Formosa in Funchal, the capital of the island of Madeira where he was born, is questioned for its environmental impact and under suspicion of corruption. Associated with the Pestana Group, with which it operates several hotels in Portugal, Spain, Morocco and the United States, the project involves the construction of 89 apartments 250 metres from what is considered the last unspoilt beach in Funchal. On its website, all the apartments are listed as reserved except for four of them, with prices ranging from 855,000 to 1.19 million euros.
Prosecutor's investigation
The processing of this urban development project, in an area with environmental protection, has been plagued by various anomalies and is one of the operations investigated by the Public Prosecutor's Office, which last January indicted the president of the regional government of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque (Social Democratic Party, centre-right), and arrested three people on suspicion of corruption. The investigation is still open. Nothing, in any case, that threatens Cristiano Ronaldo's fortune. This year, Forbes magazine declared him the highest-paid athlete in the world with 260 million dollars of annual income. Of this, he receives 200 for playing in the Saudi league and 60 for his off-field businesses, where he has investments as diverse as gyms, bottled water or hair transplants. At the end of 2023, he landed in the media business in Portugal with a group of investors, who acquired the Cofina group, now renamed Medialivre. The player has become the main individual shareholder of the company, which has television channels, Jornal de Negocios and the daily Correio da Manhã, which in the past was known for giving Ronaldo great surprises. It was the newspaper that uncovered the illegal construction work in the penthouse that he bought next to Eduardo VII Park and that he would end up demolishing by order of the Lisbon City Council. Follow all the information on Economy and Business on Facebook and Twitter. Xor in our weekly newsletter