The staggering cost of hiring Cristiano Ronaldo revealed by social media boss who had 'unbelievable' deal with him

The staggering cost to hire Cristiano Ronaldo's services have been revealed by a social media boss who worked with him.

The five-time Ballon d'Or winner is one of the most marketable people on the planet and is the most-followed person on Instagram, where he has 647 million followers.

Ronaldo is also the first person to reach a billion followers across social media, while he is now posting regular videos to a whopping 72.9 million subscribers on his record-breaking 'UR Cristiano' YouTube channel.

From time to time the 39-year-old can be seen sharing sponsored posts on his platforms, with paid partnerships with the likes of UFL, Saudi Arabia, AVA athletes, Whoop and Herbalife.

And given his innate global appeal, those deals do not come on the cheap. Around ten years ago, Ronaldo was paid to promote the Sportlobster app that he was an ambassador for.

Ronaldo said the app, which Michael Owen was an investor in, would "change the way fans consume sport forever". Harry Hugo, who was head of social and help build the brand before going on to co-found the Goat Agency, has revealed how much his former company forked out for Ronaldo to post 30-40 times.

He hailed it as an "unbelievable deal" and noted that Ronaldo's rate these days is much higher.

Cristiano Ronaldo's services do not come on the cheap. Image: Getty

"We were the first guys to be a digital-only deal with Cristiano Ronaldo for a quarter of a million pounds," Hugo told Rising Ballers.

"That was for the year, for a third of his social media output.

"So we're talking like nearly 30-40 posts that are dedicated to Sport Lobster, dedicated with a link to download and that cost a quarter of a million quid.

"It costs a million quid for him to turn up to a TV photoshoot and now it costs a million quid for him to post on anything. So it was an unbelievable deal.

"It got to a point where every time he posted it would generate us like two thousand downloads. He had a hundred million followers."

As detailed by Football Leaks book from by Der Spiegel journalists Rafael Buschmann and Michael Wulzinger, Ronaldo and his representatives charged Mobily, a Saudi telecoms business, £920,000 for four-and-a-half hours of his time - which included a photo-shoot, five signed shirts and two plugs across his social media channels.

According to CNN, the Al Nassr forward earns a staggering £2.57 million per Instagram post - more than any other celebrity.