The World's 100 Highest-Paid athletes, according to Forbes
Three footballers on the podium of the 'richest' sport players of the last season
Sports
June 12th, 2019
June 12th, 2019
At the end of each sporting season, uninterruptedly from 1990, the American finance magazine Forbes draws up the ranking of the highest-paid athletes in the world, the one that for 12 years had Tiger Woods on the top and that last year, instead, Floyd Mayweather. This time, in addition to registering a 5% increase in overall earnings (to reach a total amount of about 4 billion dollars), three football players are on the podium: starting from the bottom there's the Brazilian from PSG, Neymar Jr. (with $ 105 million), passed by Cristiano Ronaldo (109) and Leo Messi (127). The FC Barcelona player adds 92 million from salaries to 35 from endorsement, mostly obtained thanks to the partnership with adidas, Gatorade, Huawei, MasterCard and Pepsi.
On what basis is the ranking drawn up? Forbes includes both the salaries received by the club and the prize money and those earned by the sponsors, considering the time frame from June 1, 2018 to June 1, 2019. Regarding sponsorships, these are estimates - absolutely reliable - based on the conversations of dozens of insiders. The fees and commissions of the agents are included in the income, while those from investments are excluded.
Returning to the ranking analysis, there remains a fair predominance of US athletes (62 out of 100) and basketball players (35 out of 100), even if you have to scroll to the eighth position to find the richest, the Los Angeles Lakers' star, LeBron James. The first and only female athlete is Serena Williams, in 63rd place. Among the 100 there are no Italians, while a total of 12 footballers: in addition to the three on the podium, there are Paul Pogba, Andres Iniesta, Alexis Sanchez, Kylian Mbappé, Mesut Ozil, Oscar, Antoine Griezmann, Gareth Bale and Mohamed Salah.
Click here to take a look at the complete ranking.
