Football's three defining stars of the past two decades — Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah — are preparing for life after the game, and their off-pitch strategies are increasingly diverging. As the 2026 World Cup marks Ronaldo's final tournament and another career milestone for Messi and Salah, Messi and Ronaldo have moved heavily into equity stakes in AI, health tech and startups, while Salah has stuck to a more traditional mix of commercial deals, property and philanthropy. The shift matters because it reflects a wider trend of elite athletes trading one-off endorsements for ownership stakes, offering startups global reach and credibility that ordinary investors cannot.

Messi launched the San Francisco investment firm Play Time HoldCo in 2022, building a Silicon Valley-style portfolio spanning AI firms such as FieldAI and World Labs, plus stakes in Sorare, KRÜ Esports and an ownership component in Inter Miami, valued at $1.45 billion in February 2026. Ronaldo has concentrated on health technology aligned with his fitness brand, investing in Whoop, paying $7.5 million for 10 percent of Herbalife's Pro2col software, backing supplements firm Bioniq, and reportedly taking a 5 percent stake in Al-Nassr. Salah, by contrast, keeps his interests in commercial holding companies and real estate rather than tech startups.