Messi Is World’s Highest Earning Athlete

Barcelona and Argentina Captain, Lionel Messi has emerged as the world’s highest earning athlete in the latest ranking of income by sportsmen.

Messi earned $127 million to upstage Floyd Mayweather who had held the position last year and had held the same position four times in the last seven years.

In the compilation of the top 100 earning athletes compiled by Forbes, Messi took first position for the first time beating Cristiano Ronaldo to second place. The Juventus and Portugal playmaker earned $109 million in the latest compilation. Brazil star, Neymar was third with total earnings of $104 million

The figures were for income earned in the period between July 1, 2018 and June 1, 2019.

The only woman on the list of top 100 earners was tennis star Serena Williams who was Number 63 on the list.

Messi’s salary and bonuses accounted for $92 million of his income while endorsements contributed $35 million. Ronaldo had more endorsements with $44 million and $65 million from his salary and bonuses.

 Neymar made $75 million from his salary and another $30 million from endorsements.

While the soccer stars had the top positions in the latest ranking, more than half of the top 100 earners were in the United States where they scooped from either the National Football League or in the National Basketball Association, NBA

“The global impact of soccer is clearly reflected in earnings in 2019, with the top three athletes on the list being Messi, Ronaldo, and Neymar,” said Kurt Badenhausen, senior editor, Forbes Media. “But basketball players continue to dominate the top 100 overall with 35 athletes on the list earning a total of $1.29 billion, with 72% of that income coming from salaries rather than endorsement deals.”

25 different countries are represented in the latest ranking with America having the greatest proportion with 62 persons. There is no Nigerian represented.

Britain has five athletes, France and Spain have three, while Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Serbia and Venezuela all have two.

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