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Al Nassr star Cristiano Ronaldo is now the World’s highest-paid athlete followed by PSG stars Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe according to the latest list from Forbes. Ronaldo earned $46 million from his salary at Manchester United and Al-Nassr while the five-time Ballon d'Or racked up $90 million in off-field earnings.
Reportedly, the Portuguese will be earning $213 million at the Saudi club in his two and a half years contract. The new league and region of Saudi Arabia have new marketing opportunities for the former Manchester United star. Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, is among the latest additions to his sponsor's list, which helped in pushing the off-field earnings even further. Only three athletes in the history of Forbes’ tracking have beaten that figure in a year including Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, and Conor McGregor.
Ronaldo's arch-rival Lionel Messi is second on the list and has earned around $130 million in the last year with his salary covering $65 million of it. The Argentine star is rumored to exit Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season amid high interest from clubs like Al-Hilal and Barcelona. His endorsements list includes Adidas, Budweiser, PepsiCo, and Socios, which is a blockchain-based platform that will pay him $20 million per year.
Kylian Mbappe is the youngest on the list with $120 million in earnings as he also has the biggest contract in all of football. The French star signed a three-year extension at PSG in May 2022. According to a report in The New York Times, Mbappe will be paid €630m which is about $700 million over the course of the new contract, and a 180 million signing-on bonus spread over three years. Although he earned $100 million from his salary his off-field earnings are comparatively lower as he earned $20 million from his sponsorships. This amount will gradually increase with time as his brand value increases.
Forbes said its on-field earnings figures include all prize money, salaries, and bonuses earned in the last 12 months while off-field earnings are an estimate of sponsorship deals, appearance fees, licensing income, and cash returns from businesses they operate.
Among the top 10 highest-paid athletes in the world, three are football and basketball players each while two are golfers, and one boxing and tennis star each. The top three places are booked by the footballers while NBA star LeBron James clinched the fourth spot and Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez makes the top five list.
Here are the top 10 from the list:
- Cristiano Ronaldo - $136 million
- Lionel Messi - $130 million
- Kylian Mbappé - $120 million
- LeBron James - $119.5 million
- Canelo Álvarez - $110 million
- Dustin Johnson - $107 million
- Phil Mickelson - $106 million
- Stephen Curry - $100.4 million
- Roger Federer - $95.1 million
- Kevin Durant - $89.1 million
