James Rodriguez is a Colombian soccer player who currently plays for Bayern Munich club. He also plays as a winger or attacking midfielder of the Colombia National team. He has an estimated net worth of $30 million. James David Rodríguez Rubio was born on July 12, 1991, in Cúcuta, Colombia. His impressive playmaking skills led him to be dubbed the successor of Carlos Valderrama, a renowned Colombian icon. His powerful shots, ball control, creativity, speed, and dribbling skills are often compared to Cristiano Ronaldo. From 2008 through 2010, Rodriguez played for the Banfield team. On July 6, 2010, he was signed by F.C. Porto to an $8.2 million contract. He currently plays for FC Bayern.
James Rodriguez sponsorship deals
Unsurprisingly, Rodriguez’s showing at the 2014 World Cup has attracted a fair few sponsors. Since 2014, Rodriguez has agreed nine deals with six different companies according to sports market intelligence company Sportcal. These include deals sportwear giants Adidas, sports drink Gatorade and financial services provider Libertex. Sportcal has little information on the amount that Rodriguez earns through these deals. However, we can assume that the Adidas deal, which sees him wear Adidas boots on the field and promote the Adidas X range, is his most lucrative sponsorship deal to date. The most unusual is his partnership with blockchain-powered fintech platform SelfSell. The two parties recently collaborated to release the JR10 token, Rodriguez’s very own cryptocurrency.
James Rodriguez’s 9 sponsorship deals
What do Rodriguez’s sponsors get in return?
In return, brands gain access to a vast army of social media followers. Since the 2014 World Cup, Rodriguez has amassed a social media following of close to 87m fans. He is the third most followed player competing at this summer’s World Cup, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Lionel Messi. Likewise, despite his decline, he continues to gather an additional 11m followers each year. Rodriguez’s audience engage with his posts too. Since January, he has amassed 67m social media interactions, including likes, comments, shares and video views, according to sports social media sponsorship data tool Hookit. This proves valuable for brands that are looking to target large volumes of football fans. For example, in a 12 month period between June 2017 and June 2018, Rodriguez made 114 social media posts on behalf of his biggest sponsor, Adidas. According to Hookit, those posts drove $48m of value for the sportswear brand.
Sponsorship vs sport: How does Rodriguez earn most of his money?
After joining Real Madrid in 2014, Rodriguez instantly became the eighth highest-earning football player in the world, only trailing the biggest names in the game at the time. His bumper new deal put him ahead of the likes of Sergio Aguero, Luis Suarez and Eden Hazard. However, it took some time for sponsors to catch up. Just 16% of his earnings that year came from endorsements. In that year, Rodriguez took home $25.4m, $21.4m of which came from his Real Madrid wages and bonuses. Salary remains Rodriguez’s biggest revenue stream and has been throughout his career. However, the gap between the two has closed somewhat over the years. Rodriguez’s endorsement earnings peaked at $7m in 2016, which was approximately a third of his total earnings of $21.9m. Over the past four years, Rodriguez has made approximately 75% of his earnings from his salary and 25% of his earnings from sponsorship deals.
James Rodriguez net worth: How much has he made so far?
Rodriguez has been earning $22m on average each year since emerging as a star of the game at the 2014 World Cup. Despite falling down the pecking order in Madrid, Rodriguez has continued to take home an astronomical amount of money.
Rodriguez has taken home $89m in the last four years. Having signed a $9m deal with Bayern, he will continue to add millions to his net worth. According to wealth management publication Spear’s, Rodriguez is currently worth approximately $26m. Celebrity Net Worth estimates his wealth in a similar region, at around $30m.