James Rodriguez made a big splash at the 2014 World Cup, prompting Real Madrid to spend a boatload of money to buy the Colombian attacking midfielder from Monaco. We went through Rodriguez's transfer histry to figure out how much he cost each time he was bought and sold throughout his career.

Lionel Messi is one of the richest athletes in the world in 2015. He may not be the richest soccer player – that honor goes to Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid – but he's certainly close. And, as of 2014, Lionel Messi had the highest salary (overall earnings) of any footballer.

So exactly how much is Messi worth, and how much does he get paid?

Zied has not lived the most comfortable of lives thus far. His home country, Syria, has been beset by violence and war and terror and turmoil for pretty much all of Zied's young life.

Zied's family joined the legions of refugees trying to escape Syria and flee to Europe, hoping for a better life — one where the likelyhood of having your head cut off on any given day is considerably lessened.

Then this happened.

Cristiano Ronaldo is headed to the silver screen, according to Spanish newspaper Marca. 

The newspaper reported that Ronaldo has been given a part in an upcoming Martin Scorsese film called "The Manipulator."

It is incredibly hard for an individual player to have an affect on a soccer match. The game is comprised of 22 players that at any one time could be making more of an impact than any one player. There could be a defensive battle on the left side of the field that renders the right winger a spectator. The left-back in a defense could be such a defensive liability that the opposing attack choses to go nowhere else but through him, leaving the corresponding right back to do little more than mark space in solitude.

Cristiano Ronaldo's season was off to a slow (for him) start. As happens when foorballers get off to slow starts to seasons (see Rooney, Wayne and Kane, Harry), the general public begins loudly wondering whether the footballer in question has lost it.

Cristiano Ronaldo has now scored eight goals in two games in the span of four days, so we can safely say that he is still one of the two best players in the world. 

Before today, Cristiano Ronaldo had 77 goals in the Champions League. Lionel Messi had 77 goals in the Champions League.

Now, Cristiano Ronaldo has 80 goals in the Champions League after converting a second-half hat trick that saw the Portuguese winger bury two penalties against Shakhtar Donetsk, and finish the whole thing off with a header off a rebound.

Messi still has 77 goals, but he doesn't play until tomorrow. Until then we will be giddy with anticipation, because Messi is no stranger to hat tricks himself.

Cristiano has released a fragrance. This is a surprising thing only because this is the first time Cristiano Ronaldo has released a fragrance. 

We were shocked when we found this out. We figured Cristiano releases fragrances with the same frequency that some of us release bowel movements after we have eaten Taco Bell.

Cristiano's fragrance is called "Legacy," and we have no idea why. We guess it's one of those fragrance names engineered by marketers that's meant to sound kind of cool but ultimately means nothing.

Real Madrid certainly have a high opinion of Ronaldo. Which begs the question, how much is Cristiano Ronaldo worth to them?

Before we get into that, it's also worth asking why wouldn't Real Madrid assign a high value to Ronaldo? He's either the best or second-best footballer and one of the most marketabe athletes in the world. His jerseys fly off the shelves. He's the player people come to see when the come to see Real Madrid.

Paris Saint-Germain know this about Cristiano Ronaldo, and have in the past declared their intentions to buy him from Real Madrid.