Barcelona's Lionel Messi raked in $127 million dollars this past year in a combination of his salary and endorsements, making him the richest athlete on planet earth.
Forbes released their annual list of the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes today, revealing Messi as just the eighth different athlete to snag the top spot since Forbes started tracking athlete earnings in 1990. According to Forbes, Tiger Woods holds the record for most times atop the list with 12.
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The Top 3 consists entirely of soccer superstars with Messi leading the way, followed by Cristiano Ronaldo ($109M) and Neymar Jr. ($105M). Rounding out the Top 5 richest athletes is Canelo Alvarez, who punched his way to $94 million, and Rodger Federer with $93.4M.
Although the international soccers stars accounted for the three highest earnings, Forbes reports that more than half of the world's 100 highest-paid athletes play in either the NBA or NFL. This includes Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers, as well as LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant - all of whom ranked within the Top 10.
Anyone who made less than $25 million (compared with $17.3 million five years ago) simply didn't earn enough to make the Top 100 cut.
The Top 10 list of the richest athletes is as follows, according to Forbes:
1. Lionel Messi, soccer: $127m
2. Cristiano Ronaldo, soccer: $109m
3. Neymar, soccer: $105m
4. Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, boxer: $94m
5. Roger Federer, tennis: $93.4m
6. Russell Wilson, football: $89.5m
7. Aaron Rodgers, football: $89.3m
8. LeBron James, basketball: $89m
9. Stephen Curry, basketball: $79.8m
10. Kevin Durant, basketball: $65.4m
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