Have you ever wondered what can happen to a person when he/she does nothing but kicks a ball around and is even richer than small countries? Yeah, me too. Let’s talk about footballers who are billionaires. What do they do with their money? It is much more interesting than expensive cars and mansions, because frankly speaking, that is all there is as well.
The Billion-Dollar Boot Club
And that is what surprises me, that football is in the billionaire age. We are not referring to guys who make a lot of money- we are referring to players who have reached the elusive ten-figure mark. And what these footballers who are billionaires do with their finances are fundamentally a masterpiece of the form I kicked a ball a lot, now see me create an empire.
Cristiano Ronaldo was made the first billionaire in football way back in 2020, and today his net worth is estimated at 1.4 billion dollars by Bloomberg. That’s billion with a B. The man, who literally begged to be given leftover burgers in McDonalds as a child in Madeira, now owns hotel chains, gym, and fragrance empire. That is not a glow-up, at least not in my opinion.
Hotels, Hotels Everywhere
So what do footballers who are billionaires actually spend their cash on? Apparently, they are hotel lovers, all right. And I mean REALLY love them.
Ronaldo joined with Pestana Hotel Group to establish the Pestana CR7. By 2026, he owns properties in Funchal, Lisbon, Madrid, Marrakech, and New York, and plans to do the same with Manchester and Paris. He invested approximately 40 million euros in this venture and these are no regular Holiday Inns. We are discussing rooftop endless pools, hi-tech gyms, and bars called Inverse by CR7 simply because it makes sense to place your initials on things literally everywhere.
And Messi is not sleeping over this either. He has the MiM Hotels chain under the Majestic Hotel Group which is distributed in Spain, Andorra, Ibiza and Mallorca. It is alleged that these hotels make more than 400 million dollars a month. Monthly! And now I am partying when my savings account reaches four figures.
The Real Estate Game
When you’re trying to figure out what footballers who are billionaires. What do they do with their money?, real estate always pops up. These men are property racketeers such as we are coffee cup collectors.
Ronaldo has a mega-mansion in Cascais, a villa in Marbella, a seven-bedroom estate in Madrid in his La Finca, a plot on the Dubai Billionaire Island (yes, it actually exists), and likely, many others I am not remembering. He has an estimated property portfolio worth in excess of 100 million dollars.
In early 2025, Messi became a publicly traded company, when he sold his Spanish real estate firm, Edificio Rostower to Portfolio Stock Exchange in Spain at a valuation of 223 million euros. The guy literally commercialized his property business. No business mogul is giving that energy.
Fashion and Fragrances Because Why Not
The CR7 brand isn’t just hotels. Ronaldo has his hands in underwear, footwear, jeans, perfumes and anything you can put a logo on. His underwear collection is even a separate brand called JBS Textile Group which makes approximately 40 million dollars every year. Take that to bed–forty million of underwear.
Another 20 million per year is generated by his fragrance line with Eden Parfums. The man literally pours money into your sleep literally just because people want to smell like him.
In 2019, Messi opened The Messi Store, which retailed premium items. It was later acquired by a company in 2024 and this is an indication that it was performing very well. He is also a co-owner of El Club de la Milanesa, a network of restaurants that promote traditional Argentine breaded meat which is growing in the South America, Europe, and the US.
The Tech Investors
Here’s where it gets really interesting. These footballers who are billionaires they are not only purchasing pretty stuff, they are making serious investments in tech.
Messi founded a San Francisco investment firm, Play Time that focuses on sports, media and technology firms in 2022. He has invested in Sorare (digital collectibles), ZujuGP (a digital football platform) and other health tech startups. The guy is creating a portfolio that would make Silicon Valley VCs envious.
Some of the investments made by Ronaldo include Binance (cryptocurrency), Insparya (hair transplant clinics in Europe) and even co-founding a movie studio, UR.MARV, with British producer Matthew Vaughn in 2025. Since it was not enough to appear a football legend, hotel mogul and fashion icon, he needed to enter the world of movies as well.
The Gym Rats
When footballers who are billionaires. What do they do with their money? it incorporates fitness ventures, it is rather reasonable. These are men who have made their whole careers based on physical perfection.
Ronaldo has gone into business with Crunch Fitness to establish CR7 Crunch Fitness gyms. They are at Portugal and Spain and the idea is to expand globally. Both gyms are equipped with high-tech training and apparatus, in a nutshell, offering Ronaldo insane work regime to ordinary people who will certainly not train as hard as the man did.
The Team Owners
David Beckham is not a billionaire in the strictest sense (he has about 450 million together with his wife Victoria), but his narrative on the same demonstrates a success example of making the right choices what smart footballers who are billionaires can do with their money is legendary.
In 2007, when Beckham was signed by LA Galaxy, he had an expansion team in MLS that was negotiated to be bought by his manager Simon Fuller at 25 million dollars only. He exploited that option in 2014 to launch Inter Miami CF. The same franchise is worth more than one billion dollars as we move to 2026. That is 40 times the ROI. Then he took Lionel Messi in 2023 and the entire thing went to stratosphere.
Beckham constructing a 1 billion dollar mixed use development at Miami Freedom Park which consists of 25,000 seat stadium, hotels, retail and parks. He is not a manager of a football club, he is building a whole sports and entertainment district.
The Ridiculous Car Collections
Okay, fine. Let’s talk about the stereotypical billionaire stuff. Because when discussing footballers who are billionaires. What do they do with their money?, we cannot pass over the absolutely insane collections of cars.
Ronaldo has more than 25 supercars in possession, some of which are Bugattis (Chiron, Veyron), a Ferrari Monza SP2, McLaren Senna, and Lamborghini Aventador. His car portfolio is tens of millions in itself.
He is also a 73million dollar Gulfstream G650 personal jet- one of the fastest personal jets in the world. But this is interesting: he hires his other privates jets (which are numerous) to about 3, 000 euros/hour. Even his toys make him money.
The Future Play
What’s fascinating about footballers who are billionaires in 2026 is how they are positioning themselves to have a successful retirement. They do not merely spend money, they are establishing business empires that are sustainable.
Ronaldo has his fingers in all the alkaline water (URSU9) and luxury watch partnerships with Jacob and Co. He even acquired a 10 percent interest in Portuguese company Vista Alegre Atlantis worth 17.3 million euros into porcelain and ceramics.
The family office is in Andorra, where Messi has a wide range of investments, and the US office is concerned with startup investments via Play Time. These men are looking decades into the future.
The Bottom Line
So what do footballers who are billionaires. What do they do with their money? They create dynasties that will continue to exist decades after their retirement. They are not mere athletes who made it rich, they are entrepreneurs who are ridiculously good at football.
Ronaldo has become an owner of hotels, gyms, fashion brands, and movie studios, having started as a poor person. Messi converted the goals to a publicly-traded real estate company and venture capital company. Beckham transformed a 25 million dollar investment into a 1billion dollar franchise.
The smartest part? They are using their huge social media follows (Ronaldo has more than 600 million vulnerable to Instagram) to sell everything under their hands. All the posts are advertisements. Every goal is a brand moment. They have made themselves into corporations that walk and talk and score goals.
And honestly? It’s kind of genius. These men are aware that they will one day retire in their football careers. Knees are weakened, reflexes slack and younger players appear. But hotels don’t retire. Real estate doesn’t age out. Technology investments do not draw hamstrings.
By 2026, they have figured out the end game: use football industry as a means of creating business empires that will continue to churn money even after they retire. Not a bad gig by guys who began by attempting to get a ball into a net by kicking.