Meet the billionaire former tennis star who has more than double Cristiano Ronaldo’s net worth

The 39-year-old may be earning silly money for Al Nassr but he is dwarfed in comparison.

You may have thought that Cristiano Ronaldo’s stunningly lucrative contract at Al Nassr would be enough to make him the richest athlete of all time.

However, the fortune of a billionaire former tennis star show that Ronaldo still has a way to go before he can claim that crown.

The man in question is Ion Tiriac, who, despite retiring from professional tennis in 1979, is said to have a net worth of $2.1bn (£1.65bn).

As you might have already worked out, given the fact that he’s hardly a household name, he didn’t start making serious money until after his career was over.

Having only made around £200,000 from tennis, with his best Grand Slam singles placing being the semi-finals of Wimbledon in 1970s, the Romanian would go on to make a series of shrew investments in later life.

So impressive were those investments in terms of return, that he now has a personal fortune which is more than that of Ronaldo and LeBron James combined.

The 85-year-old made his money through leading Tiriac Group, which invests in real estate, financial services and a host of other businesses.

As per Forbes, the success of these ventures saw him become Romania’s first official billionaire in 2007, which allowed him to accrue a collection of 400 luxury car and bike models. Not bad.

Image credit: Getty

By comparison, Ronaldo is estimated to have a net worth of between £500m and £600m in 2024, meaning that, even with his Al Nassr deal, he hasn’t reach billionaire status just yet.

The 39-year-old is regularly near the top of current athlete rich lists, alongside the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar, Lewis Hamilton and Rafael Nadal.

Ronaldo’s current deal with the Saudi Arabian club sees him earn a staggering £175 million per year, according to the Standard.

If that number isn’t eye-watering enough, that roughly equates to £3.6 million per week.

Image credit: Getty

Furthermore, his Al-Nassr salary doesn’t even factor in other revenue streams, as the Portuguese international also makes money from prior deals with Armani, Unilevel, Nike, Herbailfe and DAZN.

Before signing for the Saudi Pro League club, Ronaldo was revealed as the third-highest paid athlete in 2022, behind only Lionel Messi and LeBron James.

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But a year later, he was named the highest-paid footballer in the world. In fact, Forbes ranked Ronaldo as the highest-paid athlete of any sport with expected total earnings of $260m (£205m).