The Portugal and Real Madrid superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo has been recognised as the highest earning athlete in the world by Forbes.
The latest 2017 ranking, fellow footballer and strong rival Barcelona’s Lionel Messi comes second.
Ronaldo is the world’s highest-paid athlete, with earnings of $88
million over the past 12 months from salary, bonuses and endorsements.
Ronaldo is only the second team athlete after Michael Jordan to rank as
the top-paid since Forbes began tracking athlete earnings in 1990.
It is a good time to be a world-class athlete in a popular team
sport. TV money is fueling massive increases in player salaries across
baseball, basketball, football and soccer. The cutoff for the top 100
athletes is $20.8 million, up $2 million over last year.
Ronaldo’s Real Madrid contract is worth more than $50 million a year
in salary and bonus and runs through 2018. He triggered one of those
seven-figure bonuses by leading Real to the Champions League title when
he found the back of the net on the clinching penalty kick.
The three-time FIFA player of the year is a marketing juggernaut
earning $32 million off the pitch by our count. He kicked off a contract
extension with Nike NKE -0.57% last year worth $13 million a year (Nike
is partnered with 50 members of the top 100).
Other Ronaldo endorsement partners include Tag Heuer, Herbalife ,
Pokerstars, Clear Shampoo and more. He has his own line of suits,
cologne, shirts, shoes, underwear and hotels under construction.
Ronaldo’s massive social media presence is a boon to marketers,
encompassing 215 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and
Twitter.
He posted 255 times on social media promoting a brand over the last
year. Those posts generated $176 million in media value, according to
Hookit, which tracks sponsorship value in social and digital media.
Messi ranks No. 2 with earnings of $81.4 million. Messi earned
bonuses from Barcelona and chief sponsor Adidas when he racked up his
fifth FIFA player of the year award in January. Messi’s total earnings
from sponsors were $28 million.
His Adidas pact is worth more than $10 million annually, and he also
has endorsement relationships with Huawei, Tata Motors , PepsiCo PEP
-0.03% (Gatorade and Lay’s brands), Gillette and Electronic Arts EA
+0.44%.
Our earnings figures include salaries, prize money and bonuses paid out between June 1, 2015, and June 1, 2016.
Endorsement incomes are an estimate of sponsorships, appearance fees
and licensing incomes for the same 12 month period based on
conversations with dozens of industry insiders.
We do not deduct for taxes or agents’ fees and we don’t include
investment income (click here for a more detailed methodology and the
numbers behind the top 100).
The 100 top-earning athletes hail from 23 countries and compete in 10
sports, with Americans (65) and baseball players (26) the most
numerous. Over the last 12 months, they banked a cumulative $3.15
billion, 29% of which came from endorsements and appearances.
The NBA’s LeBron James ranks third with total earnings of $77.2
million and leads 18 basketball players on the list. Nike signed James
to the first lifetime contract in the company’s 44-year history at the
end of 2015 (Michael Jordan is presumed to have a lifetime deal in all
but name).
Sales of James’ signature shoes are down over the past 12 months, but
if sales rebound and the four-time MVP can move product after his NBA
days are over, the contract will likely pay out more than $1 billion.
King James has gone Hollywood with his SpringHill Entertainment
production company and multi-platform media company Uninterrupted, which
got a $15.8 investment in December from Time Warner TWX +0.04%. James
made his big-screen debut in the summer of 2015 in the movie Trainwreck.
James is also set to star in the sequel to the 1996 Jordan
movie-vehicle Space Jam.
The new Nike pact and TV vehicles pushed James’ off-court earnings up
$10 million to $54 million. His NBA salary is headed for a bump next
year, too, with the league’s salary cap about to explode thanks to the
start of the NBA’s new $24 billion TV contract next year, triple the
prior deal annually. James can opt out of his existing Cleveland
Cavaliers deal and secure a pact starting around $31 million.
Roger Federer is the top-earning athlete in an individual sport with
$67.8 million over the past 12 months. He leads a group of seven tennis
players, including Serb Novak Djokovic, who lands in the top 10 for the
first time at No. 6 with $55.8 million.
It has been four years since Federer captured his 17th Grand Slam
title at Wimbledon in 2012, but he remains the top player off the court
with $60 million from endorsements and appearance fees.
Federer generated millions from playing four matches in the Indian
Premier Tennis League in December. His endorsement portfolio is filled
with long-term deals with global brands like Nike, Rolex , Mercedes-Benz
and Credit Suisse.
The top two earners on Forbes’ 2015 athletes list both took big cuts after their record paydays.
Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao earned $300 million and $160 million,
respectively, for the 12 months ending in June 2015 after their bout in
May 2015 produced the first $600 million night in the history of sports.
Both fought once over the last 12 months and claim they are now
retired.
Mayweather ranks No. 16 with earnings of $44 million, while Pacquiao lands at No. 63 with $24 million.
Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova are the only two women to make
the cut for the second straight year, but the tennis stars flip-flopped
spots thanks to new endorsements for Williams and bonuses from her
historic three Grand Slam 2015, while Sharapova has been sidelined most
the year after a failed drug test. Williams earned $28.9 million (No.
40) and Sharapova ranks No. 88 with earnings of $21.9 million, off
nearly $8 million.