Why Cristiano Ronaldo's Norwich hat-trick earned him £850,000

On Saturday afternoon, Cristiano Ronaldo left the Old Trafford pitch far richer than when he stepped out for kick-off. By scoring a hat-trick against Norwich to earn Manchester United a 3-2 victory, the No.7 triggered a bonus clause in his contract.

According to The Sun, there was a 20-goal target built into Ronaldo’s 2021/22 Manchester United contract, which he hit with the second of his three goals against the Canaries. That immediately activated a £750,000 bonus. But, Ronaldo will now earn an additional £100,000 for every goal he scores above that 20-goal milestone, including the freekick that completed his Saturday afternoon hat-trick. As such, the Portuguese collected a cool £850,000 in bonus payments during that match.

Ronaldo is also in line to collect a bonus of approximately £1,000,000 if he finishes the campaign as the top scorer at the club, which he is very much on course to do. His 21 goals – 15 in the Premier League and six in the Champions League – put him well ahead of the squad’s second-top scorer Bruno Fernandes, who currently has nine goals.

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As well as these bonus payments, Cristiano Ronaldo is believed to be earning £480,000 per week in his normal wages. Given that the Norwich City clash was United’s only fixture of the past week, this means Ronaldo essentially earned a total of £1,330,000 for playing 90 minutes against the bottom-placed side in the Premier League and for scoring three goals in the game.

With that coming on top of all his other business ventures and sponsorship deals, Ronaldo is still earning millions and millions per year. It was recently revealed that he brought in a total of £90.5m in 2021, making him the third-top-earning sports star in the world, only behind first-placed Conor McGregor and second-placed Lionel Messi.