Ronaldo to invest in luxury resort Saturday, November 19, 2005
Investment plans for Ronaldo
Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo is joining forces with four other top Portuguese footballers to invest millions in a football-themed luxury resort in southern Portugal.
The 20-year-old, along with his Chelsea rivals Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreia, Lyon's Tiago Mendes and Barcelona's Brazilian-born star Deco, will foot 50 percent of the 40 million euro (47 million dollar) cost of the project with the rest being covered by construction firm RR Grupo.
"This is going to be the beginning of various ventures we are going to carry out," Fernando Rocha, the company chief, told Expresso weekly.
The project involves the construction of 400 apartments as well as bars, swimming pools, a spa, a health club and other sports facilities spread over seven hectares near the city of Portimao in the Algarve.
Work on the project, dubbed Hotel Alvor Baia, will begin in February and should be completed in June 2008.
England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson is leading a group of investors who are investing more than 50 million euros to build a resort and football in the Algarve near the city of Lagos, 15 kilometres (10 miles) west of Portimao.
The RR Grupo owns several hotels in the Algarve, which is popular with British and German tourists and is often used by football clubs for training camps because of its mild climate.
