Some may gawp at the record transfer fee Madrid are proposing to pay Manchester United for its prized asset but according to research commissioned by Weber Shandwick Sport, Ronaldo's transfer would be worth up to $75m a year in revenue earned through increased shirt, ticket and merchandising sales.
‘Real Madrid is a brand which combines a group of stars. It is impossible to identify the amount of income from sources such as TV income, tours, or ticket sales due to a single player. Only jersey sales can be broken down by player, but fans are only likely to buy one shirt at a time. Real could sell one million shirts per year only with Beckham. But Ronaldo and Kakà aren't Beckham.', says Gareth Moore, international sales director at Sport+Markt.
Whether significant additional revenue can be generated through increased ticket sales and price increases is debateable. Given that Spain boasts the highest unemployment rate in Western Europe and that Real's home stadium - the Santiago Bernabeu - is already often at capacity it is difficult to see how Ronaldo can help put more bums on more expensively priced seats.
Far more important will be the player's image rights to which Madrid will soon be entitled to a significant percentage. In short the more lucrative global deals he signs the better for both player and club alike. ‘Ronaldo is relatively unbranded', says Steve Martin, CEO at M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment. ‘The Beckham model of four or five global long-term partnerships is still the gold-standard. Ronaldo should get rid of the localised stuff.
Ronaldo has only two heavyweight global deals: Nike and Castrol, which will leverage the endorsement in the run up to the 2010 World Cup for which it is a global sponsor.
Aside from that much of Ronaldo's promotional activity has been locally based. In Indonesia, for example, he has appeared in TV ads fro energy drink Extra Joss while other locally run ads featuring the Portugese flyer include Coca-Cola, Suzuki, Fuji Xerox and campaigns for his native tourist board VisitPortugal - where, in a terrific football cliché, he recommends the golf.
His arrival at Madrid will assist the club's brand development in Asia, where it has been left trailing by Manchester United. But, before that, there is a job to be done on the Ronaldo brand.
For many, Ronaldo is an extremely irritating. Fortunately, football fans can forgive and forget. After all it's hard to imagine that David Beckham was once a love/hate figure whose effigy was hanged and set on fire following England's elimination from the 1998 World Cup.
‘There is a big job to do on Ronaldo's brand. Those that know him say he's a fantastic guy and great for team spirit, so they need to refresh how he is marketed and how he comes across. There is a major PR job to be done with him.'