The richest endorsement deals ever: Ronaldo or Messi or Canelo Alvarez?

Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Canelo Alvarez are some of the most marketable sports personalities in the world. All three sportsmen have built a personal brand around themselves that attracts the biggest companies and the wealthiest endorsement deals. While Ronaldo has built a CR7 brand image, Messi leverages on the GOAT tag for commercial purposes while Alvarez poses as one of the most exciting boxers around. We'll look at the biggest endorsement deals that each one has.

Cristiano Ronaldo is a business-savvy personality with so much influence, especially across all social media platforms. In 2016, Ronaldo renegotiated his endorsement deal with kit-maker, Nike. The Portuguese forward was then offered a lifetime contract worth $1bn, to be paid in instalments yearly. Ronaldo is only the second athlete to be offered a lifetime contract by Nike, after LeBron James.

Lionel Messi has been an ambassador for a kit manufacturing company, Adidas for over a decade. In 2018, Adidas matched Cristiano Ronaldo's deal with Nike by offering Lionel Messi a lifetime contract as an ambassador. The deal's terms are said to be a guaranteed sum of $25m yearly. This is one of the biggest and longest endorsement deals to be handed out. 

Canelo Alvarez signed one of the biggest payday deals with international broadcasters, DAZN in 2018. The broadcast company thus purchased the right to air 11 of the Mexican boxer's bouts for a sum of $365m. This works out to be approximately $33.7m per fight. With these figures, Canelo Alvarez' deal with DAZN seems to be the biggest overall.