Time waits for no man, and Cristiano Ronaldo has begun preparing for
life after football as he announced his investment in four hotels that will
bear his name.
The €75million plan will see four hotels built in a partnership with
Portugal’s biggest hotel chain, Pestana, with the first scheduled to be opened
this summer in Funchal, Madeira.
As the city’s most famous export, Ronaldo’s return to the island will
take advantage of his image by being located near the Cristiano Ronaldo museum
and the bronze statue of him found in the Praça do Mar.
The others will be built in Lisbon, Madrid and - interestingly - New
York, the only city of the three in which Ronaldo has never lived or played.
With the obvious interest in expanding his global brand (why else
invest in a hotel chain, after all?) and an eye on the American market, a move
to Major League Soccer has long been mooted for Ronaldo.Already fluent in
English, he’d be a perfect fit for an MLS franchise looking to make a splash
and the New York clubs will now be licking their lips in anticipation of a
property near Times Square bearing his name and providing a whole raft of new
commercial opportunities.
Ronaldo’s move, assuming it comes this summer, is almost certain to be
to Paris or Manchester and thus a move Stateside would still be two or three
years in the distance.
Business ventures like this though, away from football, suggest he is
looking beyond his playing days - something he admitted.
“My job is to play football but life won’t always be like this,"
he said. "I have to dedicate myself to this new project and I have the
best team in the world around me to help.
Cristiano Ronaldo looks beyond his football career after launching new
hotel chain
“I am young but I feel very
fulfilled, so this project is exciting for me because my roots are in Madeira
and this is where the first hotel will be.”
It’s not likely to be a project that distracts from Cristiano’s
commitments in the game, and his significant and all-encompassing entourage
will help ensure that he doesn’t need to be too involved on a day-to-day basis.
That said, the Portugal skipper claimed he “likes to know” about the
things he’s involved in and “will be present as much as possible.”Excerpts from
the recent Anthony Wonke biopic Ronaldo played ahead of the announcement in
Lisbon, a film where the importance of family and, in particular, his son to
Ronaldo is made abundantly clear.
So it was no surprise to hear them mentioned as he reiterated that this
step was about looking past the end of his playing days and into retirement:
“I’m thinking about my future, and my son and my family,” he said.
“This will be very important in my life but we are ambitious together,
we must seize this unique moment.”
