The 10 highest paid athletes of 2021 according to Forbes

Forbes has published, as every year, the list of the highest paid athletes of 2021. In the top 10 there are athletes who have earned a total of just over a billion dollars (gross amount) in the last year and there is no shortage of news. The first comes from the first position, where for the first time is Conor McGregor who has earned 180 million dollars. Followed by Lionel Messi with 130 million, Cristiano Ronaldo with 120, Dak Prescott (quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys) with 107.5 and to close the top five positions is LeBron James with 96.5, the first on the list under the 100 million profit.

In the second half of the ranking are Neymar (95 million), Roger Federer (90 million), Lewis Hamilton (82 million), Tom Brady (76 million) and Kevin Durant (75 million). One of the peculiarities of this ranking is that almost 50% of these sportsmen have earned more from off-the-pitch activities than from sports contracts. McGregor, thanks to the sale of the whiskey brand Proper No. Twelve and the new contracts with DraftKings, with "Dystopia: Contest of Heroes" and with the lifestyle brand Roots of Fight, has earned 158 million dollars compared to "only" 22 arrived from UFC related activities. The extreme case in question is Roger Federer: all 90 million dollars earned come from endorsement contracts with Rolex, Credit Suisse and Uniqlo - not counting the revenues of Hon. Also LeBron James (65 off the court and 31.5 on court) and Kevin Durant (44 off the court and 31 on court) are part of this trend.

Different situation for the footballers and for the only driver on the list. Lionel Messi takes home 97 of his $ 130 million from activities on the soccer field, while for Ronaldo the division is 70 on the pitch and 50 off the pitch. Even Neymar, despite the new contract with PUMA, has an almost 7:1 ratio of football revenues to sponsor revenues.