Sports as demystified the campaign for the equal pay between men and women as Floyd Mayweather sits at the zenith of the world’s highest-paid athletes for the fourth time in seven years with $275 million for his boxing match against UFC star Conor McGregor who earned $85 million, no woman makes the top 100 of the 2018 list.
Mayweather generated another $10 million outside the ring from appearances, memorabilia and endorsements with Hublot and Tequila Avion to bring his total earnings for the year to $285 million. He joins Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods as the only athletes to earn $1 billion since turning pro.
Lionel Messi is second-highest-paid sportsman with $111 million comprising of $80 million in salaries from Barcelona plus $27 million in endorsement deals with Adidas, Gatorade, Pepsi and Huawei.
Ronaldo is in the third position with $108 million. His lifetime Nike contract is worth upwards of $1 billion. He has an array of other deals, including Herbalife, EA Sports and American Tourister, along with a growing line of CR7 branded products for shoes, underwear, fragrance, jeans, children’s clothing, hotels and soon-to-open restaurants in Brazil. He remains the most popular athlete in the world on social media, with 322 million followers combined on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
In the fourth position is Neymar with $90 million, including $19 million from endorsement deals.
The world’s highest-paid athletes | Top 10
- Floyd Mayweather – boxing ($285m)
- Lionel Messi – football ($111m)
- Cristiano Ronaldo – football ($108m)
- Conor McGregor – mixed martial arts ($99m)
- Neymar – football ($90m)
- LeBron James – basketball ($85,5m)
- Roger Federer – tennis ($77.2m)
- Stephen Curry – basketball ($76.9m)
- Matt Ryan – American football ($67.3m)
- Matthew Stafford – American football ($59.5m)
The top 100 earned $3.8 billion, a 23% jump over last year. Salaries and prize money are up significantly, but endorsement earnings fell for the second straight year to $877 million as companies watch their sports marketing budgets.
The top 100 has an international flavor with athletes from 22 countries, but Americans dominate the action with 66 making the cut thanks to sky-high salaries in baseball, basketball and football. Those three sports had a combined 72 entries.
Serena Williams was the only women to make the top 100 last year, but her prize money dropped from $8 million to $62,000 this year after she gave birth to her daughter, Alexis, in September. Williams still cashed in off the court, with more than a dozen current endorsement partners like Nike, Intel, Audemars Piguet, JPMorgan Chase, Lincoln, Gatorade and Beats. The 23-time Grand Slam champ earned $18 million over the last 12 months.
Source: Forbes.com
