Forbes magazine has released its annual list of World’s 100 Highest-Paid Athletes. Forbes’ earnings figures include salaries, bonuses, prize money, appearance fees and endorsements for the past 12 months. The top 10 paid athletes may come as a shock.
1. Floyd Mayweather $300 million (total earnings), 285 million (Salary), 15 million (Endorsements)
2. Manny Pacquiao $160 million (total earnings), $148 million (Salary) , $12 million (Endorsements)
3. Christiano Ronaldo $79.6 million , $52.6 million (Salary) , $27 million (Endorsements)
4. Lionel Messi $73.8 million (total earnings), $51.8 million (Salary) , $22 million (Endorsements)
5. Roger Federer $67 million (total earnings), $9 million (Salary), 58 million (Endorsements)
6. LeBron James $64.8 million (total earnings), $20.8 million (Salary) , $44 million (Endorsements)
7. Kevin Durant $54.1 million (total earnings), $19.1 million (Salary), $35 million (Endorsements)
8. Phil Mickelson $50.8 million (total earnings), $2.8 million (Salary), $48 million (Endorsements)
9. Tiger Woods $50.6 million (total earnings) , $0.6 million (Salary), $50 million (Endorsements)
10. Kobe Bryant $49.5 million (total earnings), $23.5 million (Salary), $26 million (Endorsements)
Mayweather and Pacquiao dominated at the top 2 spots with their hugely hyped fight. Surprisingly, no NFL players made the top 10. It’s interesting to see that only the top 4 made a majority of their money off their salary but the other 6 make their majority off of endorsements.