On February 14, 2005, three former PayPal employees founded a video platform called YouTube. Cell phones with film functions were rare at the time, so many of the early clips came from classic camcorders or were recordings of television broadcasts.
They are small remnants from the early days of social networks, before self-promotion became a part of everyday life and a business model. From this era, there are the first compilations of scenes from individual football matches, often accompanied by music from bands like Linkin Park. In these early best-of clips, a young footballer wearing a Manchester United jersey appears, circling around his Premier League opponents one after the other.
All of this in high-resolution 360p. Whether you like it or not, Cristiano Ronaldo’s brand is probably the biggest of any single athlete in the world. The most recent proof is the launch of his YouTube channel, which amassed millions of subscribers within a few hours. Just by reaching the subscription targets, Ronaldo has received more awards in the last few days than in his two years at Al-Nassr.
At the moment, the channel, with videos of a maximum of three minutes in length, seems very keen to keep Ronaldo’s name in the conversation outside of the desert of Saudi Arabia. It would be exciting if the former world footballer ventured into new territory. There would be no limits to the imagination: joint Fortnite videos with his former teammate Mesut Özil, song parodies with Erling Haaland or CR7 discovering his inner Mirko Drotschmann and explaining the context of politics to his predominantly young audience.
Perhaps the 39-year-old finally wants to escape the hustle and bustle after decades in the spotlight and will let us share in his trip around the world on a folding bike in Birkenstocks.
