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CR7 brand worth 54 mln euros

Xinhua, January 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

Portuguese football phenomenon Cristiano Ronaldo, also known as CR7 (initials + jersey number), appears bent on breaking every record there is, media reported Thursday.

Following the announcement earlier this week that the famed footballer had won the sport's highest honor, the coveted Golden Ball, the value of his CR7 brand shot up to a cool 54 million euros (63 million U.S. dollars).

On Monday, Ronaldo was named the winner of the 2014 Golden Ball, presented annually by world football body FIFA to the world's most outstanding player.

The study, carried out by Portuguese marketing school IPAM, which has been tabulating the player's worth each year for the past four years, shows Ronaldo's brand has more than doubled in value since 2011, when its worth amounted to 24.5 million euros, to 54 million euros today.

To arrive at its figure, the IPAM uses a formula known as Sports Reputation Index (SRI), which aims to measure a player's reputation, popularity and prestige by evaluating several factors, such as income, media coverage, awards, and web presence.

On a scale of one to 100, Ronaldo scored an SRI of 88 points, scoring a perfect 100 in the web category.

"The CR7 brand has impressive presence on the main Internet sites, turning him into the footballer with the highest profile worldwide," said the IPAM.

On Twitter alone, Ronaldo has 32 million followers, in addition to 2 million videos on Youtube, 104 million fans on Facebook and 102 million entries on Google.

IPAM professor Daniel Sa, who coordinated the study, said " everything indicates that the CR7 brand has yet to arrive at its full potential, as it has all the right conditions to keep growing. "

What's more, said Sa, Ronaldo's fame has expanded beyond the world of sports to the level of "such major celebrities as Shakira or Justin Timberlake."

The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) Thursday officially elected Ronaldo the best football player in the history of the country, overtaking the late and legendary Eusebio and Luis Figo. Endite