CRISTIANO RONALDO earned his old club Real Madrid an additional £540,000 last night – by scoring a stunning hat-trick for Juventus against Atletico Madrid.
The elimination of a fellow Spanish club has gifted Los Blancos a cash injection thanks to Uefa’s division of prize money.
Every nation represented in the Champions League receives a pot of cash, divided by all teams – but with further incentives for a deep run into the tournament.
Spanish teams receive roughly 15 per cent of the “market pool” – spread amongst teams based on their position in the league standings the year earlier.
With Atleti finishing above Real in La Liga in 2017-18, they were allocated more money than Los Blancos in European competition this season.
While Real crashed out of Europe in spectacular manner at the hands of Ajax last week, they were still handed a minor boost last night.
As Atletico were stunned by a sensational Ronaldo trio – a record-levelling eighth for the star forward – their share of the pot drastically crashed.
That allowed Real to rake in £540,000 more than they had expected, despite being out of the competition for a week.
It’s even better news for Barcelona too, who are still in the competition – and play Lyon in the second-leg of their last-16 clash tonight with the tie level at 0-0.
Barca won the La Liga title last season and should they progress to the quarter-finals after tonight’s game at the Nou Camp, will receive even more money.