The money being thrown around in the beautiful game these days really is mind-boggling. The English top-flight sells the TV rights for billions of pounds and the big names earn in excess of £200 000 PER WEEK. Worse yet, Andy Carroll was sold for £35 million and Fernando Torres for £50 million, with neither able to hit a barn door in the aftermath.

One man who has no problem hitting the back of the net is Cristiano Ronaldo, who has banged in 28 goals in 18 La Liga games this season. As you can imagine, he is worth a fair bit then, but the latest figure revealed by his super-agent Jorge Mendes is ridiculous. This from espnfc:

“Cristano Ronaldo? One billion,” Mendes said when asked by the BBC how much the three-time Ballon d’Or winner was worth. “His buyout clause one billion [pounds…yes the British ones], so it is one billion. If, for any reason, the club decide to sell him tomorrow for 300 million, someone will pay.

The scary thing is he probably isn’t wrong, with some of the oil-money megaclubs having already threatened to put in ludicrous bids for the Portuguese superstar. Lionel Messi couldn’t be reached for comment, although he was heard muttering some unmentionable Spanish words under his breath.

[source:espnfc]