The Nightly On Influence: How reach of World Cup’s most influential stars extends beyond pitch
In many ways, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are a perfect contrast, but what they have in common is winning, accolades and an unmatched influence within soccer and arguably within sport as a two-piece.
Now under way in the US, Canada and Mexico, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is the most lucrative — and watched — competition in the history of sport.
It is expected that upwards of $9 billion of FIFA’s World Cup earnings will arrive this year with a further $4b having been generated within the four-year cup cycle, taking total earnings to beyond $13b, more than doubling the JU$5.24b generated by the Paris Olympics.
The ad spend alone is forecast to hit more than $1 trillion.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.It doesn’t hurt that global sporting icons, the first and fourth most-followed people across social media — Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi — will be playing in this World Cup.
With an estimated 73 per cent of the world’s population tuning in, the superstar rivals’ presence will once again be one of the event’s main plot lines.
The duo both made their World Cup debuts back in 2006, to much fanfare and rave reviews.
Stylistically, the fluid whirlwind that is the pint-sized Argentine maestro Messi and the unstoppable Portuguese Terminator Ronaldo are a perfect contrast, but what they have in common is winning, accolades and an unmatched influence within the world game and arguably within sport as a two-piece.
Between them, the pair have won 13 of the past 17 Ballon d’Ors, the sport’s highest individual honour. On nine occasions club football’s most prestigious tournament, the Champions League (formerly the European Cup), was won by either Messi or Ronaldo’s team.
Their presence on opposite sides of one of the game’s biggest rivalries — El Classico, between Messi’s former club Barcelona and Ronaldo’s old side Real Madrid — only added to their cultural impact.
Even though the pair ply their trade somewhat off-Broadway these days — Messi swapped French giants Paris Saint-Germain for newly formed American side Inter Miami in 2023, while Ronaldo left Italian powerhouses Juventus for cashed-up Saudi Arabian side Al-Nassr the same year — in reality, they bring Broadway to them.
People want to be them, or at the very least feel like them. In 2024, Messi’s jersey ranked No.1 globally for Adidas in jersey sales of individual players.
Former Socceroo Jacob Burns runs a small-sided summer tournament for juniors in Perth and says he is always taken aback by how many kids rock up wearing Inter Miami jerseys emblazoned with “Messi” and his No.10 on the back.
Read the full edition of The Nightly On Influence for free on Thursday, June 17 at thenightly.com.au
“That comes down to the deals that are created,” Burns says. “The same with David Beckham going to LA (Galaxy in 2007); they own a piece and percentages of all the marketing and it makes it financially viable.
“What it does is it boosts the domestic game to the point where you have these (other big-name) players playing in your league.”
In an age where sport has become entertainment, Messi and Ronaldo are box-office names and their playing zenith and rivalry has been accelerated by the explosion of social media.
After Messi arrived in America to a Beatlesmania-like reception from fans, Major League Soccer reported 400 million social interactions in 2024, a 230 per cent rise compared to the previous year when the Argentine had arrived mid-season.
It was a similar story when Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr. The Saudi club’s combined followers across Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok soared by 22 million in two months and, as of 2026, sits at 59.3 million.
In 2021, Ronaldo became the first person to reach JU500 million followers across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Only Instagram’s official account boasts more followers than either Ronaldo (664m) or Messi (505m).
Ronaldo is also the most followed person across all social media with a combined audience of more than one billion, with Messi fourth with 633m followers.
Of the top 20 posts in the history of Instagram, the pair are responsible for 11 of them and two of Messi’s posts following Argentina’s drought-breaking 2022 World Cup final win are Instagram’s first and third most-liked posts of all time, tallying 74.5m and 53.3m likes respectively.
The power duo’s celebrity status is handsomely reflected in their riches. Having already become the first active team sport athlete to surpass $1b in career earnings in 2020, Ronaldo topped Forbes’ most recent highest-paid athletes in the world list at $275m in annual earnings for 2025.
He was more than $100m clear of second-placed basketballer Stephen Curry; Messi, meanwhile, came in fifth spot at $135m in estimated earnings for the year.
Endorsements cling to the pair like a well-tailored suit. Ronaldo has deals with Nike — including his own CR7 brand — Lego and Panini stickers, while his fitness-conscious image is reflected by lucrative deals with wellness organisations Therabody and Whoop.
Messi has a number of similar deals, too, headlined by partnerships with Adidas, Apple, Beats by Dre, Hard Rock Cafe, Mastercard and Pepsi.
But the duo’s impact can most viscerally be felt in the number of fans they bring through the turnstiles.
A 2023 study by peer-reviewed academic journal Contemporary Economic Policy found Saudi Pro League attendances ballooned after Ronaldo’s signing and his presence addedbrought an additional 20 per cent to crowds in his home team’s stadium, 15 per cent in opposing teams’ stadiums and 3 per cent even where he did not play.
In Messi’s first full season after settling down in Florida, MLS recorded a competition-wide 5 per cent increase in average attendance, part of a 14 per cent increase since 2022, the year before he arrived.
Of the top 10 attendances in MLS history, four of them have come in Inter Miami games since Messi joined — and such is his pulling power, even when he does not show up, it causes a ripple effect.
Back in 2024, the Argentine and fellow superstar teammates Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba were featured in adverts in Canada ahead of Inter Miami’s clash with MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps, but all hell broke loose when they were rested for the game north of the border.
A class-action lawsuit was launched against the JUWhitecaps and the league over the stars’ no-show, with the JUBritish Columbia Supreme Court ordering the defendants JUto collectively pay almost $460,000 to settle the lawsuit in March this year.
The coming World Cup looms as the pair’s last dance on the world stage — Messi is 38 years old, Ronaldo 41 — and while it will likely mark sponsors’ and brands’ last major chance to wring some money out of their names, for a generation of soccer fans, it will also mark the end of an unprecedented era.
“The impact that they’ve had and dominance in world football over that period of time we may never see again,” Burns says.
“I don’t know how many more Messis and Ronaldos will grace our game and for how long, but it’s certainly been a joy to watch them.”
