BRAZILIAN footie legend Ronaldo is starting a new career as a soft porn magnate, it was claimed yesterday.

Sources said the ex-World Cup and Real Madrid star is hoping to buy the huge Playboy franchise in his home country — and is close to making a bid.

And they say Ronaldo, 36, sees the publication — Brazil’s tenth best-selling magazine — as a lucrative business opportunity.

Sales of the men’s mag in Brazil have dropped from over a million a month in the 1990s to 250,000.

But striker-turned-businessman Ronaldo believes his “Midas touch” will help rejuvenate them.

The star — real name Ronaldo Nazario de Lima — retired from football in 2011.

His glittering career saw him score a record 15 World Cup goals and in 2002 he scored two in the final as Brazil stormed to victory.

Now shrewd investments and endorsement deals are believed to have made him a billionaire.

He earns around £10million a year from sponsors including Nike, Fiat and Duracell while his marketing company 9INE is set to make £15million in 2014.

The firm manages image rights to some of Brazil’s biggest sports stars, including football prodigy and new Barcelona signing Neymar.

Ronaldo also owns a chain of gyms, a sports clinic, a nightclub and a six-storey building that houses a university in Rio de Janeiro.

He also owns a string of properties, including apartments in Rio, Sao Paulo, Paris and Madrid, and his own private island.
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