Messi and Ronaldo Bet on AI and Health Tech While Salah Goes Traditional

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the two most recognisable footballers on the planet, are putting money into AI, health technology, and early-stage startups. Their contemporary Mohamed Salah is going a different direction, sticking to more conventional investments outside of football. According to a report by WIRED, the divergence shows how elite athletes are thinking seriously about what their portfolios look like once the playing days end.

What happened

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are both building tech-focused investment portfolios. According to WIRED, their interests span AI companies, health tech, and startup ventures. Mohamed Salah, by contrast, is taking a more traditional approach to his financial activity beyond football.

The report frames this as a study in different strategies. Two athletes at the peak of global recognition are chasing the startup economy. A third, equally prominent, is not.

Why it matters

Athletes at this level do not just endorse products anymore. They take equity. They sit on cap tables. When Messi or Ronaldo backs a startup, it signals something to other investors and to consumers, whether the technology is strong or not.

The AI and health tech sectors are both crowded and capital-hungry right now. Having a global name attached to a funding round can move valuations and press coverage in ways that have little to do with the underlying product. That is worth watching for anyone who tracks early-stage AI companies.

Salah’s more traditional route is also worth noting. Not every high-profile athlete is chasing the startup wave, and diversifying into conventional assets has its own logic, especially when the tech sector remains volatile.

Our take

From where we sit, the Messi and Ronaldo approach reflects a broader pattern: celebrities are being used as distribution channels for AI and health tech brands. The product gets credibility, the athlete gets equity, and the press covers it regardless of merit.

That is not inherently bad. Some of these bets will pay off. But business owners watching the AI space should separate the signal from the noise. An athlete’s involvement in a funding round tells you about marketing strategy, not product quality.

Salah’s path is the quieter story here, but it is not the less interesting one. Choosing conventional investments when everyone around you is chasing the next AI startup is a positioning decision in itself.

For anyone running a business and evaluating AI tools or vendors, ask whether the celebrity endorsement you keep seeing is backed by genuine use cases. If the answer is mostly “it’s good for brand awareness,” treat it accordingly.

What to do about it

If you are evaluating AI tools or platforms that carry celebrity investment or endorsement, run the same checks you would on any vendor:

• Look for independent product reviews, not press releases tied to funding announcements.
• Ask for a demo or trial before committing budget.
• Check whether the company has real revenue or is running on hype and runway.
• Separate the brand story from the actual feature set.

The bottom line: a famous name on the cap table is a marketing asset, not a quality guarantee.

Source: WIRED · AI