Cristiano Ronaldo Launches YouTube Channel, Surpasses Lionel Messi And Breaks Records

Cristiano Ronaldo, a global icon, is spreading his wings in the world of social media. Having built a massive following on Instagram, X and Facebook, Ronaldo, widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers to have played the game, has made a spectacular debut on video sharing platform YouTube shattering a host of records.

On Wednesday, he launched his channel named ‘UR’ and asked his followers to hit the subscribe button.

And his fans obliged. In record numbers.

Within the first 90 minutes of the channel being launched, it had already hit the 1 million subscribers mark and reportedly, this is the quickest anyone has managed to reach this milestone in YouTube’s history.

At the time of this article going live, Ronaldo’s channel has 11.2 million subscribers and counting.

Interestingly, Ronaldo’s contemporary Lionel Messi – a global football icon himself – has a YouTube channel too and 2.27 million subscribers despite it being launched way back in 2006.

Ronaldo says the channel won’t just cater to stories from his football career but also give his followers a peak into his “family, wellness, nutrition, preparation, recovery, education, and business.”

“I have always enjoyed having such a strong relationship with fans on social media and my YouTube channel will give me an even bigger platform to do so and they will learn more about me, my family, and my views on many different subjects,” Ronaldo said.

Ronaldo has entered the final stretch of his glowing football career that has seen him playing for some of the biggest clubs in Europe including Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus. Currently, he’s plying his trade for Saudi club Al-Nassr.

He’s a five-time Ballon d’Or award winner which is handed annually to the best footballer on the planet.

The 39-year-old already boasts of over 900 million followers spread across Instagram (636 million), Facebook (170 million) and X (112.5 million).

Ronaldo, who first shot to global limelight when representing Manchester United, made an emotional return to the club in 2021 but left on an acrimonious note having fallen out with manager Erik ten Hag.

Louis Saha, his former Man United teammate, feels that there’s a possibility that Ronaldo could one day make his return to Old Trafford.

“Cristiano Ronaldo has the passion and dedication to return to Manchester United one day, that could be as a coach or even a manager. His second spell didn’t end how everyone had hoped and you can see why that frustrated him, he didn’t see the same formula and didn’t see the passion from young players that he had been used to seeing,” Saha told TVSporten.