Soccer Star, Fashion Icon Cristiano Ronaldo Turns Hotelier With CR7

Soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo has started his own hotel brand, adding hotelier to his already impressive list of credentials.

Cristiano Ronaldo, of Real Madrid soccer fame, has launched his own hotel brand. The star recently invested more than $40 million into a group of four boutique hotels developed by Pestana Hotel Group in Portugal. The hotels will be operated under his CR7 brand and will be located in cities integral to his own history — one in Funchal, his hometown; one in Lisbon where he began his soccer career as a youth; one in Madrid where he played with Real Madrid; and one in New York City, because he might move there to play major league soccer.

Ronaldo first got the idea to invest in the hotels through a casual conversation with Pestana’s chief executive, Dionisio Pestana.

“In my opinion, he’s the best guy to do business with in Portugal,” Ronaldo told CNBC. “He’s from Madeira too, so it was a good partnership. He has experience, not just in Portugal but all over the world. Dionisio is the number one [in hotels] and I’m the number one in football so, we have everything. I’m 100 percent sure that this is going to be different from others because of my name, the way I live, my ambitions, Dionisio’s ambition too. Between this base of people—people who like me, the people who follow me—I think we have all the ingredients to do it.”

Ronaldo’s investment into Pestana’s hotel chain is his first outside of the sports and fashion industries.

[Photo: Twitter @Cristiano]