Over the past 15 years just two players have dominated the Forbes List of top-earners in sport. Tiger Woods held the top position 12 times while boxer Floyd Mayweather headed the list three out of the past four years.
Now with Mayweather hanging up his gloves and Woods hampered by injuries the gap has been filled by Real Madrid and Portugal footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, the world’s highest-paid athlete with estimated 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.
The 100 top-earning athletes hail from 23 countries and compete in 10 sports, with Americans (65) and baseball players (26) the most numerous.
Ronaldo’s Barcelona arch rival Lionel Messi is second ($81.4 million), basketballer Lebron James third ($77.2 million) and 2017 Australian Open tennis champion Roger Federer fourth, as well as the top-earning athlete in an individual sport with $67.8 million over the past 12 months. They are followed by basketballer Kevin Durant ($56.2 million), former world number one tennis star Novak Djokovic ($55.8 million) and American footballer Cam Newton ($53.1 million).
Then come the first two golfers, Phil Mickelson ($52.9 million), Jordan Spieth ($52.8 million), with Kobe Bryant completing the top-10 ($50 million).
Serena William and Maria Sharapova are the only two women to make the top-100 cut for the second straight year.
