Cristiano Ronaldo retains top spot with £71.8m total earnings as Forbes releases its 2017 list of the world's highest-paid athletes
- Forbes has released its annual list of the world's 100 highest-paid athletes
- With earnings of £71.8million ($93m) Cristiano Ronaldo is top of the pile
- Rory McIlroy and Lewis Hamilton are the only Brits in the top 10 of the rankings
Real Madrid maestro Cristiano Ronaldo retained his top spot as the world's highest-paid athlete as Forbes released its annual ranking of the world's 100 highest-paid athletes.
With earnings of £71.8million ($93m) the 32-year-old Portuguese is top of the pile for the second consecutive year.
Before Ronaldo, the best-paid sports star was either Tiger Woods or Floyd Mayweather for 15 years in a row.
Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo retained his top spot as the world's highest-paid athlete
Ronaldo enjoys Real's Champions League success at the Bernabeu a day after the Cardiff win
Rank | Athlete | Sport | Salary (£m) | Endorsements (£m) | Total Earnings (£m) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Football | 44.8 | 27 | 71.8 |
2 | LeBron James | Basketball | 24.1 | 42.5 | 66.6 |
3 | Lionel Messi | Football | 40.9 | 20.9 | 61.8 |
4 | Roger Federer | Tennis | 4.6 | 44.8 | 49.4 |
5 | Kevin Durant | Basketball | 20.5 | 26.3 | 46.8 |
6 | Rory McIlroy | Golf | 12.4 | 26.3 | 38.6 |
6 | Andrew Luck | American Football | 36.3 | 2.3 | 38.6 |
8 | Stephen Curry | Basketball | 9.5 | 27 | 36.5 |
9 | James Harden | Basketball | 20.5 | 15.5 | 36 |
10 | Lewis Hamilton | Formula One | 29.4 | 6.2 | 35.5 |
Woods ranks No 17 this year, while Mayweather did not make the cut, having had no fights over the past 12 months.
Cost of admission to the 2017 list is the highest ever at £16.5m ($21.4m), up £463,000 ($600,000) from the previous year.
'Massive TV contracts are fueling bigger salaries across team sports, pushing the entry level to qualify for the top 100 athletes higher than ever, but the retirement of several prolific endorsers like Peyton Manning and Kobe Bryant dented sponsorship income this year,' said Kurt Badenhausen, senior editor of Forbes Media.
LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers is the second highest-paid athlete in the world
The list of elite athletes consists of players from 11 different sports. Basketball dominates the list with a record 32 NBA players among the top 100, up from 18 in 2016, followed by baseball with 22 players, American football with 15 and football with 9.
There are 21 countries represented on this year's World's Highest-Paid Athletes list, with Americans (63) the most prevalent thanks to sky-high salaries in basketball, football and baseball.
Six Brits landed in the top 100, led by golfer Rory McIlroy at No 6 with £38.6m ($50m). NBA player Al Horford (No 44 with £21.7m ($28.1m) heads five athletes from the Dominican Republic, while three Spaniards made the cut with Formula One's Fernando Alonso on top at No 20 with £27.9m ($36m).
No other country had more than two athletes in the 100.
Lewis Hamilton is the only Englishman in Forbes' top 10 highest-paid athletes rankings
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