Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first footballer to reach billionaire status, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which has valued the Portugal great’s net worth at an estimated $1.4bn.
The 40-year-old striker’s financial ascent comes after he signed a new contract with the Saudi Arabian side Al-Nassr in June reportedly worth more than $400m.
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Bloomberg said Ronaldo earned more than $550m in salary from 2002 to 2023, supplemented by a decade-long Nike deal worth nearly $18m annually and lucrative endorsements with Armani, Castrol and others that added more than $175m to his fortune.
Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr from Manchester United in 2023 had already made him the highest paid player in football history with an annual salary of 177 million pounds ($237.52m) plus bonuses and a reported 15 percent share in his Saudi club.
Argentina and Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi has earned more than $600m in pre-tax salary during his career.
Ronaldo’s billionaire status places him among a rare group of athletes that includes basketball greats Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and LeBron James; golfer Tiger Woods; and tennis player Roger Federer.
Ronaldo suggested he is not considering retirement any time soon.
“I still have a passion for this,” he said at the Portugal Football Globes gala on Tuesday. “My family says it’s time to quit, and they ask me why I want to score 1,000 goals if I’ve already scored 900-something. But I don’t think that way inside.
“I’m still producing good things. I’m helping my club and the national team. Why not continue? I am sure that when I finish, I will leave full because I gave everything of myself. I know I don’t have many years left to play, but the few I have left, I have to enjoy them to the fullest.”
Strictly Come Dancing legend Anton Du Beke has been a part of the show since it began in 2004, and has seen many changes over the years – but he’s still going strong
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Anton Du Beke says he’s struggling to remember some of his choreography(Image: ITV)
Strictly Come Dancing star Anton Du Beke, who will be celebrating his 60th birthday next July, still has the agility of a man in his 30s on the dance floor.
Anton, who has been a part of every series of Strictly since its inception in 2004 – initially as a professional dancer and then as a judge from 2021 – confesses that one aspect of his craft is becoming somewhat of a “struggle” with age.
Speaking to Woman’s Weekly, he revealed how he’s always kept himself physically fit: “I know my body. I have got a good understanding of it.
“I tend to push myself, but I don’t try and break myself. Consistency is key. I feel blessed. People half my age are struggling with certain bits. I’m very fortunate I don’t. I’ve looked after myself and I haven’t been silly.”
However, while executing the steps isn’t an issue, remembering their sequence can be tricky: “Remembering what comes next is a bit of a lottery! That’s more of a struggle,” Anton admitted.
One thing that keeps Anton in shape is chasing after his twins George and Henrietta, whom he and his wife Hannah Summers welcomed in 2017.
As “slightly older parents,” both Anton and his wife Hannah Summers appreciate being able to participate in sports with their children as they grow stronger and bigger.
“One of the joys of being my age and having children is, it keeps you young,” he said.
He also shared that his daughter Henrietta is passionate about horse riding, while his son George shows more interest in football and rugby.
The twins are also admirers of their father’s literary works. Anton expanded his repertoire in 2018, launching his Buckingham Hotel series of novels.
The eighth instalment, A Winter Ball, is set for release later this month.
Alongside his adult fiction, he’s penned several children’s books in recent years, acknowledging he values “getting a steer” from his youngsters on what captures their interest.
Anton made a permanent transition from the Strictly dance floor to the judging panel in 2021, following temporary cover for Motsi Mabuse during Covid restrictions.
Two brothers from an Italian football hooligan group, Lazio’s Irriducibili, have been arrested and accused of trying to illegally obtain public works contracts for next year’s Winter Olympics, Italian prosecutors say.
The men, originally from Rome, sought to profit from the Olympics after establishing Mafia-style control over drug dealing and nightlife activities in the Alpine resort of Cortina, Venice prosecutors said in a statement.
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The resort in northern Italy is cohosting the February 6-22 Winter Games with Milan.
The arrested men are accused of posing as high-level members of Rome’s criminal underworld, vaunting their friendship with the late leader of the Irriducibili Fabrizio Piscitelli, who was shot in a Rome park in 2019.
“Irriducibili” roughly translates as “diehards”.
The brothers terrorised business rivals in Cortina, prosecutors charged, mentioning the case of a nightlife events organiser who was dragged into the woods, beaten and held at gunpoint.
A man who owed them drug money was locked in a car boot and threatened with death, and two “unauthorised” drug dealers were also beaten up.
In 2022, the pair approached a member of Cortina’s city government, offering electoral support, which the politician did not accept. They later used a threatening message to ask to be given Olympic contracts, prosecutors said.
The brothers, one of whom was put in pre-trial detention while the other is under house arrest, are accused of extortion aggravated by Mafia-style methods. Five more suspects face the same charges but were not arrested.
Russia appears resigned to the collapse of peace efforts for the war it instigated, and prosecutes to this day, in Ukraine following President Vladimir Putin’s summit with his United States counterpart Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, in August, saying whatever progress emerged from the historic meeting has all but unravelled.
Speaking to Russia’s federal assembly on Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said, “Unfortunately, we must admit that the powerful momentum generated by Anchorage in favour of agreements … has largely been undermined.”
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Ryabkov blamed European countries for much of the impasse, accusing them of wanting to wage “a war to the last Ukrainian”, according to Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency.
His comments appeared to dash any faint hopes for a quick end to the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year, whose rapid resolution Trump had made a key campaign promise.
Casting himself as a mediator, the US president made early overtures to Moscow and pressured Ukraine to make painful territorial concessions, once even berating its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House and accusing him of “gambling with World War III”.
Trump’s diplomatic push culminated in the historic Alaska summit, but it failed to produce a truce or meaningful compromises from Moscow.
Since then, the US president has grown weary of Putin’s reticence towards a deal, saying he is “very disappointed” with the Russian leader, who claims Moscow has captured 5,000 square kilometres (1930 square miles) in Ukraine in 2025 alone.
Trump has also appeared to do a U-turn on Ukraine, recently saying the country should try to “take back” all its occupied territory with Europe’s and NATO’s help.
As the Kremlin continues to attack civilian areas on a near-daily basis, Zelenskyy has reiterated that only increased punishing sanctions, including from the US, will rein Russia in. Trump has been reluctant to take that critical next step.
Last month, US Vice President JD Vance said Washington was considering sending long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, a move Putin has warned would mean a “whole new level of escalation”.
On Wednesday, Ryabkov said sending Tomahawks to Ukraine would have “severe” consequences and urged Washington to reconsider the decision.
Ryabkov said US-Russian ties were “cracking” at their “foundation” – and “the Americans are to blame for this.”
Ukrainian energy infrastructure targeted
Deadly aerial attacks between Russia and Ukraine continued early Wednesday, with each side accusing the other of targeting civilians.
In Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, a missile attack killed three people in the village of Maslova Pristan, about 15km (nine miles) from the border, the local governor said.
The governor said the attack had partially destroyed a “social facility” and posted images of what appeared to be a sports hall, its facade partially shattered.
A crater next to a sports complex building destroyed by what Russian authorities called a recent Ukrainian missile attack, in the settlement of Maslova Pristan in Russia’s Belgorod region, October 8 [Governor of Belgorod Region Vyacheslav Gladkov via Telegram/Handout via Reuters]
Moscow’s Ministry of Defence said it had intercepted 53 Ukrainian drones overnight, most of them over the Belgorod region, a frequent target of attacks.
Russia, for its part, fired at least 183 drones at Ukrainian territory between late Tuesday and early Wednesday, the Ukrainian air force said. Among the targets were rail and energy infrastructure, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
One attack seriously damaged one of Ukraine’s thermal power plants, a key energy supplier leading into the winter, according to Ukrainian electricity provider DTEK. Another strike, in the southern city of Kherson, killed two elderly people, local officials said.
‘Hybrid warfare’ in Europe
Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has blamed Russia for waging a form of “hybrid warfare” in Europe, after weeks of air incursions, cyberattacks and damage to undersea cables rattled countries including Estonia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Poland and Romania.
India and China are resuming direct flights after five years of suspension and say they will strengthen trade ties.
Their relationship has long been defined by rivalry, competing ambitions and a disputed border. Now, India and China are resuming direct flights after a five-year suspension.
United States President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a shifting trade landscape could push them closer together.
For China, it is about offsetting the tariff pressure and expanding trade links.
For India, it is a chance to attract investment even as it holds to its goal of becoming an alternative manufacturing hub to China. At stake is the balance of global supply chains and economic influence.
After warning that change is on his agenda when he eventually becomes King, a palace insider has revealed exactly what Prince William intends to do when the time comes
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Prince William has opened up about his future (Image: Kensington Palace/PA)
Opening up in one of his most candid interviews to date, Prince William set out his agenda for ‘change’ when he becomes King.
And now a source close to the Prince of Wales has revealed the exact two ways in which William will shake up the monarchy when the time comes. Just last week, the heir to the throne set out his approach for when he takes the top job explaining: “Change is on my agenda – change for good”. It came as he appeared on the Apple TV show The Reluctant Traveller with Eugene Levy as he gave a tour of Windsor Castle and the surrounding area to the Schitt’s Creek star.
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And although in the show, he didn’t specifically say what changes he was looking at, a source close to the palace has revealed what they might be.
Speaking to PEOPLE magazine, they said: “”Prince William’s been quite vocal about what he wants to do when the time comes. [To be] more accessible, more approachable.”
In the travel show, William also candidly described how his wife Kate’s cancer battle left him overwhelmed, revealed his children do not have mobile phones, and said he aims to create a “ world in which my son is proud of what we do”.
He referred to being Prince of Wales and king as a ‘job’ and said he takes his ‘roles’ and ‘responsibilities’ seriously but it was important “you don’t feel they own you – you have to own them”.
His comments are his most detailed reflections on being heir to the throne to date, and he explained: “I think it’s safe to say that change is on my agenda – change for good,” he told Levy as they discussed his future role as king and how his son Prince George will one day succeed him.
William added: “And I embrace that and I enjoy that change – I don’t fear it. That’s the bit that excites me, is the idea of being able to bring some change. Not overly radical change, but changes that I think that need to happen.”
The future king was filmed in early February chatting with Levy in Windsor Castle as he played tour guide for his guest, when they walked William’s black cocker spaniel Orla through the grounds and they spoke over a pint in The Two Brewers, a local pub.
And royal biographer Andrew Morton also told the publication: “He struck me as one of the lads. That’s different from previous generations. He seems very much one of us, even though he is the future King.”
Prince George, who celebrated his 12th birthday in July, will follow his grandfather Charles and father William to be king and the Prince of Wales said about the young royal: “I want to create a world in which my son is proud of what we do, a world and a job that actually does impact people’s lives for the better.”
He appeared to suggest he wanted to ensure his son did not face a repeat of ‘practices’ from the past he and brother Prince Harry had faced when younger, a possible reference to intrusive press scrutiny that also plagued their mother Diana, Princess of Wales.
