Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of Messi as football's most valuable brand - Forbes

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the world's
top 10 athlete brands, the latest Forbes ranking shows --
but there is no place on the list for Lionel Messi.
Ronaldo is No. 8 in the ranking -- down a place from
last year -- which calculates athlete brand value as
sponsorship income minus the average of endorsement
income of the top 10 athletes in the same sport.
The Forbes data shows Ronaldo has a brand value of
£10.4m ($16 million), £9m behind the top-ranked
athlete, golfer Tiger Woods.
Forbes calculated Ronaldo's brand value at £11m
($17m) last year while Barcelona star Messi was ranked
ninth in 2014 with a brand value of £7.78m ($12m) and
dropped out of the top 10 this year.
Cristiano Ronaldo's skills & good looks have landed him
mega sponsorship deals: https://t.co/1SKkXJeqSv
pic.twitter.com/PhQt1N5mmr
- Forbes (@Forbes) October 23, 2015
Another golfer, Phil Mickelson (£18.2m) is second in the
list, with tennis star Roger Federer and basketball's
LeBron James (both £17.5m) joint third. India cricket
captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (£13.7m) rounds out the
top five ahead of 100m sprint champion Usian Bolt
and Oklahoma City Thunder small forward Kevin Durant
(both £11.7m).
In the top 10 most valuable teams, Ronaldo's Real are
fifth, with a value of £301m, with Manchester United
valued at £289m and Barcelona £283m.
The top four places are taken up by U.S. franchises the
New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Dallas
Cowboys and the New England Patriots
On Thursday, Messi denied he was in competition with
Ronaldo, with both players having been named on the
2015 Ballon d'Or shortlist.
Messi told Yahoo Sports: "These are things that people
say. I don't compete with Cristiano, and I suppose he
would not compete with me. What I want is the very
best for my teams and that's what I am working for."
Meanwhile, Ronaldo's advisors have denied reports that
the player had been considered but then rejected for a
cameo role in a biopic of Italian entrepreneur Alessandro
Proto.
They told news agency EFE: "We want to clarify that
Cristiano Ronaldo was never directly or indirectly invited
to participate in a project."
They accused the filmmakers of using the three-time
Ballon D'Or winner's fame "to promote themselves."
They added: "The only film in which Cristiano Ronaldo
was and is involved in the documentary 'Ronaldo', which
gets its world premiere on Nov. 9."