Announced in May, the Fuel Like Ronaldo campaign is designed to help consumers incorporate athlete-inspired nutrition and lifestyle habits into their everyday routines.
But for Herbalife, the initiative also reflects the evolution of a relationship that has grown far beyond a traditional endorsement agreement.
A partnership that has evolved
Herbalife first partnered with Ronaldo in 2013. Since then, the relationship has expanded into product innovation, digital wellness and personalized nutrition.
The companies collaborated on Herbalife24 CR7 Drive, a sports hydration product launched in 2015, and more recently Ronaldo took an ownership role in Herbalife’s Pro2col digital wellness platform.
“Our partnership with Cristiano Ronaldo has remained strong for more than a decade because it is built on a genuine alignment around performance, nutrition, and wellness,” Jennifer Guran, director of global sponsorships at Herbalife, told NutraIngredients.
The company’s Fuel Like Ronaldo campaign is the latest expression of that strategy: the initiative aims to translate elite athlete nutrition and performance strategies into practical guidance for consumers, Guran explained.
“At its core, the partnership reflects a shared commitment to helping people improve their overall wellness,” she said.
From sports nutrition to daily routines
The campaign also reflects an ongoing shift unfolding across the sports nutrition category.
Products once marketed primarily to competitive athletes are increasingly being positioned around energy, recovery, hydration and healthy aging. As a result, brands are looking for ways to make sports nutrition concepts more relevant to consumers who may never set foot in a gym or compete in organized sports.
Guran said Herbalife’s work with more than 120 professional athletes and teams across 35 sports has helped shape that approach.
“That experience allows us to translate insights from elite sports into practical habits around hydration, balanced nutrition [and] recovery,” she said.
She pointed to consumer research gathered through the company’s sports partnerships, which has pointed to a consistent theme: people are interested in athlete-inspired habits but want approaches that fit into busy schedules.
That insight helped shape the Fuel Like Ronaldo campaign, which is built around four pillars: prepare, perform, recover and repeat.
Reaching consumers through soccer
The campaign may be particularly relevant among Hispanic consumers, a demographic attracting growing attention from health and wellness brands.
According to Mintel’s US Hispanic Consumers: Diet and Wellness Consumer Report 2025, Hispanic consumers experience higher rates of obesity than the general population and face significant sources of stress. Yet only around one-quarter actively take steps to improve their diet and wellness.
The report identified several barriers, including limited awareness of health risks, reduced access to healthcare and health education and, for roughly one-third of consumers, uncertainty about which positive lifestyle changes to pursue.
Federal data suggest a similar gap in dietary supplement use. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 47.9% of Hispanic adults reported using dietary supplements during 2017-March 2020, compared with 63.4% of non-Hispanic White adults.
Taken together, the figures point to an opportunity for companies to pair products with education, guidance, and community engagement.
The timing may prove advantageous. With the FIFA Club World Cup underway and the 2026 FIFA World Cup approaching, soccer is expected to remain a major cultural touchpoint across North America, particularly among Hispanic audiences.
While Herbalife does not describe Fuel Like Ronaldo as a Hispanic-focused initiative, Guran said Ronaldo’s connection with soccer audiences remains an important part of the partnership’s appeal.
“Cristiano Ronaldo’s influence extends across generations and cultures, and his connection with soccer fans throughout North America is certainly meaningful,” she said.
Soccer also provides a platform to engage consumers around themes such as performance, discipline and healthy living, she added.
Community remains part of the strategy
One finding that has emerged from Herbalife’s sports partnerships is that consumers often need help translating health and nutrition concepts into practical action.
For Herbalife, that support often comes through its distributor network.
“It has also reinforced the importance of community-based engagement, which is where our distributors play an important role by helping consumers understand how these wellness habits can fit into their individual goals and lifestyles,” Guran said.
