Football's only two billionaires, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, are both nearing the end

Cristiano Ronaldo said this will probably be his final season as a professional footballer, ending a career of 24 years and closing in on the exit alongside Lionel Messi, the only other billionaire the sport has produced.

"This is probably my last year of football, and I want to leave a spectacular legacy," Ronaldo told Vogue in an interview centred on his recent marriage to Georgina Rodriguez.

The Portuguese forward, 41, said he has his future mapped out. It involves more time with his five children, travel, and playing padel. He had already announced that this year's World Cup would be his last, telling reporters he was leaving with a clear conscience after Portugal fell to Spain in the round of 16. He played in five tournaments across two decades without progressing beyond the fourth-place finish he managed on his debut in 2006.

Messi's position is less settled and considerably rawer. The Argentine, 39, wrote on Instagram last week, after the death of his father Jorge, that he was uncertain whether he could continue.

"All I ever did was play football, and now I have serious doubts about whether I'll keep doing it for much longer," he wrote in Spanish.

He described asking his father to hold on, and never getting the chance to speak to him about Argentina's 1-0 defeat to Spain in the World Cup final.

"You asked me to play in this last World Cup so many times and just before it started was when you were at your worst," he wrote. "Why couldn't you hold on just a little longer so we could finish it together?"

Jorge Messi was more than a parent to the business. He acted as his son's agent and business manager through the years in which Messi built a fortune Forbes estimates at $1.1 billion, and negotiated the endorsement arrangements that have generated more than $600 million of it.

Forbes values Ronaldo at $1.2 billion, making the two men the only footballers to have reached ten figures. Ronaldo crossed the threshold in June 2025 on the strength of a contract extension with the Saudi club Al-Nassr, which reportedly pays him around $235 million a year and has kept him the highest-paid athlete in the world for four consecutive years. He earned roughly $300 million last year.

Earlier this year he became the first athlete in history to gross $2 billion in career earnings before taxes and agent fees while still playing.

Messi's money looks different. His career haul stands at about $1.8 billion, behind only Ronaldo and Tiger Woods, and his $140 million over the past twelve months placed him third on the 2026 Forbes list of the highest-paid athletes. He has not ranked below fifth on that list since 2014 and topped it in 2019 and 2022.

Where Ronaldo's fortune runs on salary, Messi's has been built on equity and endorsement. He holds more than a dozen active partnerships including Mastercard, Michelob Ultra and Lay's, left Nike for Adidas in 2006 and signed a lifetime deal with the German brand in 2017. His Inter Miami contract carries an option to acquire an equity stake in the club once he retires, and he bought the Spanish club UE Cornellà this year, his first move into European club ownership. He also holds interests in MiM Hotels, the drinks brand Más+ by Messi and a restaurant portfolio.

Forbes ranks him the fifth-richest person from Argentina.

The playing records are unlikely to be matched. Ronaldo has won five Ballon d'Or awards, captained Portugal to the European Championship in 2016 and scored close to 1,000 goals across Sporting, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus and Al-Nassr. Messi has collected 46 team trophies, holds the records for most goals in a calendar year, most goals for a single club and most assists in World Cup history, and was named the greatest player of the 21st century by ESPN in 2024.

Neither has formally announced a retirement date. Ronaldo's contract with Al-Nassr runs through the current campaign. Messi's deal with Inter Miami extends to December 2028, when he would be 41.