A former tennis player is ‘three times’ richer than Cristiano Ronaldo, and you have probably never heard of him.
Ronaldo’s vast wealth is just one of many reasons he is so famous. The Portuguese is currently earning £173m per year, according to Arab-owned state media [via the Metro].
His overall earnings are made up of £62m from playing football, while the other £111m is reportedly earned from commercial deals and image rights, according to CBS.
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Reports suggest his estimated net worth is around the £620m mark, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
So, with all that said, you may be wondering how a little-known ex-tennis player with a personal fortune of £1.2b dwarfs Ronaldo’s wealth, according to Forbes.
The man in question is Ion Tiriac, a former Romanian tennis player whose most notable sporting feat was winning the 1970 French Open doubles final alongside partner Ilie Nastase. He also represented his country in ice hockey, appearing at the 1964 Winter Olympics.
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After retiring from playing in 1979, Tiriac served as a coach for several top players such as Marat Safin, and Guillermo Vilas and most notably worked as ‘sports agent’ for legend Boris Becker from 1984 to 1993. But despite earning a tidy wage, this was still not how he earned his incomprehensible amount of money.
One of Tiriac’s earliest ventures was with Ion Tiriac Bank - the first private bank opened up in Romania after the overthrow of Communist Party leader Nicolae Ceauşescu, according to the Mirror.
The 85-year-old is currently the head of his company, the Tiriac Group, an organisation he founded after beginning his investment career on the back of the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s.
His diverse investment portfolio includes real estate, auto, and financial services.
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Tiriac is also worth over three times more than Lionel Messi, who earned £104m from football and commercial deals last year, according to Forbes.
The report also suggests that Messi has earned over £1 billion during his career, making him football’s second ‘billionaire’ player after Ronaldo.
Despite his hugely successful business exploits, his performances in tennis have also been honoured in Romania’s capital city, Bucharest, with an annual tennis tournament called the Tiriac Open named in his honour, having been played for 21 consecutive years between 1996 and 2016. After an eight-year hiatus, the event returned in April 2024.
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The Romanian has also been involved in developing ATP tennis tournaments, including the Madrid Open, but sold it to sports, fashion, events and media company IMG for £334m in 2021, according to the Express.
Topics: Tennis, Romania, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi
Luke Davies