Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo has been named the world’s highest paid athlete, due to an enormous cash transfer to Saudi Arabia, in keeping with Forbes.
His wage, considered within the area of $75m (£59m) a yr, and his off the pitch actions, earned him round $136m (£108m) within the final yr – the best of any athlete on Earth, Forbes journal has estimated.
It’s a part of the enterprise journal’s annual collation of sports stars, which maps out who the cash goes to in skilled sport.
Down from first final yr and coming second is Argentina’s captain Lionel Messi, who had an estimated earnings of round $130m (£103m) within the 12 months.
Messi, who captained his nation to victory finally yr’s World Cup, has a hefty wage invoice at Paris Saint-Germain, and rumours counsel he might be eyeing a transfer to affix Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia, the place he was pictured earlier this week.
He additionally has model offers with the likes of PepsiCo and Budweiser, as nicely sponsorships from tech corporations.
Kylian Mbappe joins his Paris Saint-Germain teammate by nabbing third place in Forbes’ listing with earnings of $120m (£95m).
He is the best salaried footballer on this planet, and his endorsements embrace a cryptocurrency-based fantasy soccer recreation.
In fourth is LeBron James, the LA Lakers participant, who has additionally carved out a profitable enterprise portfolio.
With earnings of round $119.5m (£95m) within the final yr, his earnings consisted of his $44.5m basketball wage, in addition to his movie manufacturing work, sports funding (he’s an investor within the agency that owns Liverpool FC) and diet manufacturers.
Boxer Canelo Alvarez is fifth ($110m/£87m), raking thousands and thousands of {dollars} for each struggle he takes half in, in addition to having model offers with whiskey and beer corporations.
Kevin Durant (R) is without doubt one of the highest paid NBA stars within the US. Pic: AP
Dustin Johnson, who has defected to the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, is in sixth place on the listing, with earnings of $107m (£85).
Fellow LIV golfer Phil Mickelson is in seventh place with an earnings final yr of $106m (£84m), and NBA star Stephen Curry is eighth, with $100.4m (£80m).
Ninth is tennis icon Roger Federer, who just lately introduced his retirement from the game, with an earnings made principally from sponsorships of roughly $95.1m (£75m), and rounding out the listing is one other NBA star, Kevin Durant, who made $89.1m (£71m) from his basketball wage and investments in sporting endeavours.
Seven sporting stars on the listing had been there in 2022, with solely Kylian Mbappe, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickleson being new additions.
The journal takes under consideration all prize cash, salaries and bonuses earned between 1 May 2022 and 1 May 2023, together with an estimated earnings from sponsorships – taxes should not taken under consideration.
Content Source: information.sky.com