Cristiano Ronaldo named football’s most valuable brand ahead of Messi

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the world’s

top 10 athlete brands, the latest Forbes ranking show — but there is no place on the list for Lionel Messi.

Ronaldo is number eight in the ranking — down a place from last year — which calculates athlete brand value as sponsorship income minus the average of endorsement income of the top 10 athletes in the same sport.

The Forbes data shows Ronaldo has a brand value of £10.4m ($16 million), £9m behind the top-ranked athlete, golfer Tiger Woods.

Another golfer, Phil Mickelson (£18.2m) is second in the list, with tennis star Roger Federer (£17.5m) and basketball’s LeBron James (£17.5m) joint third.

In the top 10 most valuable teams, Ronaldo’s Real are fifth, with a value of £301m, with Manchester United valued at £289m and Barcelona £283m.

The top four places are taken up by U.S. franchises the New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots

On Thursday, Messi denied he was in competition with Ronaldo, with both players having been named on the 2015 Ballon d’Or shortlist.

Messi told Yahoo Sports: “These are things that people say. I don’t compete with Cristiano, and I suppose he would not compete with me. What I want is the very best for my teams and that’s what I am working for.”

Meanwhile, Ronaldo’s advisors have denied reports that the player had been considered but then rejected for a cameo role in a biopic of Italian entrepreneur Alessandro Proto.

They told news agency EFE: “We want to clarify that Cristiano Ronaldo was never directly or indirectly invited to participate in a project.”

They accused the filmmakers of using the three-time Ballon D’Or winner’s fame “to promote themselves.”

They added: “The only film in which Cristiano Ronaldo was and is involved in the documentary ‘Ronaldo’, which gets its world premiere on Nov. 9.”