Portugal and Real Madrid
superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo has been recognised as the highest earning athlete
in the world by Forbes.
In 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.
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