“He’s a professional player and then a businessman” - Dentsu chief shares Cristiano Ronaldo’s stance on becoming full-time creator on YouTube
The legendary Cristiano Ronaldo made waves after creating his own YouTube channel in July earlier this year. The channel, which raced to 1 million subscribers inside 90 minutes, now boasts a healthy number of 66m.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner is reportedly closely working with a group of staff from YouTube as well as his own team from Dentsu Creative Iberia to create better content. Ronaldo also has his own group of producers in the Middle East, since he plays for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia currently.
Tomas Froes, CEO of Dentsu, recently spoke to Digiday (via Goal) about what goes on in the background of Ronaldo's record-breaking channel. As was expected, Froes waxed lyrical about the fact that YouTube recognized Ronaldo's superstar stature and chose to use it to their advantage.
“Ronaldo is the biggest star in the world in my opinion. He is the most known person on the only planet that we know [that] there’s life. So he’s the most known person in the universe. YouTube understands that,” Froes said.
“We believe that to show Ronaldo as we have never seen him before, we need time. He wants to show the Cristiano outside the pitch. [Ronaldo] is not a YouTuber and will not be a YouTuber. He’s a professional player and then a businessman,” he added.
In turn, YouTube has mentioned how fortunate they are to have Ronaldo working on creating content on their platform. Pedro Pinta, VP of YouTube Europe, Middle East and Africa, has said in a statement that this collaboration with Ronaldo is a 'dream team-up for YouTube.'
“YouTube’s dream team-up with football legend Cristiano Ronaldo has been a labour of love and dedication. This is just the kick-off to an epic adventure, and we’re strapped in for the ride,” Pinta said.
Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr FC are ranked third in the Saudi Pro League
Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays for Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League, saw his team draw 1-1 with Al Hilal on Friday, November 1. This result has taken Ronaldo's side to the third position of the league table at the moment.
Ronaldo played all 90 minutes in the game against Al Hilal and was responsible for taking three shots although none materialized into a goal. The 39-year-old also had a good passing accuracy of 85 per cent in the game.