Summary
- Cristiano Ronaldo has acquired a 25 percent stake in Spanish second-division club UD Almería through his CR7 Sports Investments vehicle
- The Saudi-owned Andalusian side sits third in Spain’s Segunda División, chasing promotion back to La Liga after relegation in 2023-24
- The move marks Ronaldo’s first real step into club ownership, deepening his business ties with Saudi investors while expanding his post-playing football empire
Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest play comes from the boardroom, not the box. At 41, while still putting up numbers for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, he has bought a 25 percent stake in UD Almería, a club with serious La Liga ambitions and a growing Saudi footprint. The deal goes through CR7 Sports Investments, a new arm under his CR7 SA umbrella built to handle sport-focused ventures from hotels and gyms to tech and now club equity. No figures are public, but every outlet frames this as a long-term, strategic entry into ownership rather than a vanity buy.
UD Almería is an intriguing canvas. The Saudi-backed SMC Group, led by president Mohamed Al Khereiji, took full control in 2025 and now has Ronaldo riding shotgun as the face of the consortium. The club is third in LaLiga Hypermotion, two points off top, with promotion variables that could see Almería lining up against his old club Real Madrid in the near future. Multiple reports stress that the investment is about governance and growth, not a late-career playing detour, though his knowledge of Spanish football and global pull are expected to supercharge the club’s commercial game, youth pathway and visibility across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
This is also a statement about where power is shifting in the sport. Ronaldo is aligning his first ownership move with the same Saudi capital reshaping Newcastle, the Saudi Pro League and a wave of cross-continent friendlies, including Almería’s own showpiece clashes with Al-Nassr. He joins a modern ownership vanguard that runs from David Beckham at Inter Miami to celebrity-backed Wrexham, but does it as arguably football’s most followed individual brand. For a provincial Andalusian club with a 17,000-seat Power Horse Stadium and a reputation for flipping talent, plugging directly into CR7’s ecosystem could turn a promotion chase into a global storyline.
