Cristiano Ronaldo's former teammate joins OnlyFans after Portugal star's YouTube warning

Cristiano Ronaldo's former teammate has joined OnlyFans following the Portugal star's YouTube warning.

Cristiano Ronaldo is without doubt one of the most popular and recognisable athletes on the planet.

The 39-year-old boasts 639 million followers on Instagram, making him the most-followed account on the social media platform.

While Ronaldo has certainly done his talking on the pitch during his glittering career, he recently decided to give his fans more 'access' to his life off the pitch by setting up a YouTube channel.

Ronaldo joined the platform on August 21 and since then his account has racked up more than 56m subscribers at the time of writing.

The five-time Ballon d'Or explained that he wants to use the platform to become closer with his fans as his playing career approaches its final years.

Days after Ronaldo joined YouTube, his former teammate Douglas Costa joined OnlyFans with a similar aim of connecting with fans.

The Brazilian - who played with Ronaldo at Juventus - will use his OnlyFans account to share content not available elsewhere.

The 33-year-old made the announcement days after making the next step in his playing career.

After spells in Europe, the United States and his native Brazil, Costa has joined Australian side Sydney FC.

“I decided to join OnlyFans because I believe in the company’s credibility and potential for global reach,” Costa said through a press release sent by PR firm Metro to the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Together, this partnership has everything to be very interesting and successful.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Douglas Costa played together at Juventus. [Getty]

"The segment in which OnlyFans seeks to have athletes as brand ambassadors greatly impacts the market, and I am more than happy to be part of it, especially as one of the pioneers in the soccer segment.

“As an OnlyFans creator, I will create exclusive content for my fans that they won’t be able to see on any other social media, and it will make a great difference.

"I hope this partnership will be lasting and I can make my fans happy with my content.”

Ronaldo has similar aims for his YouTube channel, which he hopes will grow to be one of the biggest on the platform.

Mr Beast is the most followed YouTuber with 313 million subscribers, and Ronaldo sent him a warning.

"Subscribers and records... you have to put these things into perspective, but I want to beat them," the Al Nassr star said. "Everything in its own time and I feel that the fans are happier now and my first interpretation of this, a few months ago, was to be closer to them, and I am very pleased to do so.

"Mr Beast on YouTube? In two years, let's try to beat him."