Cristiano Ronaldo looks beyond his football career after launching new hotel chain

Time waits for no man, and Cristiano Ronaldo has begun preparing for life after football as he announced his investment in four hotels that will bear his name.

The €75million plan will see four hotels built in a partnership with Portugal’s biggest hotel chain, Pestana, with the first scheduled to be opened this summer in Funchal, Madeira.

As the city’s most famous export, Ronaldo’s return to the island will take advantage of his image by being located near the Cristiano Ronaldo museum and the bronze statue of him found in the Praça do Mar.

The others will be built in Lisbon, Madrid and - interestingly - New York, the only city of the three in which Ronaldo has never lived or played.

With the obvious interest in expanding his global brand (why else invest in a hotel chain, after all?) and an eye on the American market, a move to Major League Soccerhas long been mooted for Ronaldo.

Already fluent in English, he’d be a perfect fit for an MLS franchise looking to make a splash and the New York clubs will now be licking their lips in anticipation of a property near Times Square bearing his name and providing a whole raft of new commercial opportunities.

But the USA won’t be the next stop.

Ronaldo’s move, assuming it comes this summer, is almost certain to be to Paris or Manchester and thus a move Stateside would still be two or three years in the distance.

Business ventures like this though, away from football, suggest he is looking beyond his playing days - something he admitted.

“My job is to play football but life won’t always be like this," he said. "I have to dedicate myself to this new project and I have the best team in the world around me to help.

“A person like me, I’m a fighter, ambitious and always striving for more.

“I am young but I feel very fulfilled, so this project is exciting for me because my roots are in Madeira and this is where the first hotel will be.”

It’s not likely to be a project that distracts from Cristiano’s commitments in the game, and his significant and all-encompassing entourage will help ensure that he doesn’t need to be too involved on a day-to-day basis.

That said, the Portugal skipper claimed he “likes to know” about the things he’s involved in and “will be present as much as possible.”