Juventus/AP
Christiano Ronaldo is about to become the world’s most famous Jeep salesman.
The Portuguese soccer star is moving from Spain's Real Madrid to Italy’s Juventus, whose primary sponsor is Jeep. The team is owned by the Agnelli family, which also controls the American SUV automaker’s parent company Fiat Chrysler.
(Jeep)
Aside from wearing the brand’s name on their jerseys, many of the team’s stars appear in print and video promotions for Jeep vehicles, like the one for the Jeep Compass compact SUV featuring Argentine playmaker Paulo Dybala.
Dybala's teammates Gonzalo Higuain and Andrea Barzagali were even called into service a couple of years ago to appear at the grand opening for a Jeep dealership in England.
(Jeep)
It’s unknown exactly what kind of pitchman responsibilities Ronaldo’s contract will require of him when he moves to Turin, aside from plastering the Jeep logo across his often uncovered chest, but he’ll likely have to trade in at least one of the cars in his extensive collection.
(Audi)
That’s because he and the rest of the Real Madrid team were offered their pick of club partner Audi’s lineup last November and Ronaldo chose an 605 hp Audi RS7 for his one-year loan.
Jeep gave every member of Juventus a new Grand Cherokee Summit a few years ago, but that might be too mundane for someone like Ronaldo, who spends most of his time on Instagram in high performance machines like Lamborghinis and Bugattis.
(Jeep)
If he gets to choose, we’ll suggest a 707 hp Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, which starts at $150,000 in Italy.
However, if he plays his best, he may do even better than that. When Juventus met Real Madrid in the 2017 UEFEA Champions League final, then-Juventus fullback Dani Alves revealed that club chairman Andrea Agnelli promised all of the players that he’d give them Ferraris (another brand controlled by the family) if they won.
They didn’t, which is a big part of the reason Juventus is willing to pay a reported $35 million to bring Ronaldo to the team.