Real Madrid forward and Portugal captain, Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest-paid sportsperson for the second successive year, Forbes' magazine annual list of the world's wealthiest athletes. The 32-year-old forward earned an estimated $93m (N34.8bn),at N374 exchange rate, from salary, bonuses and endorsements last year.
His salary accounted for $58m (N21.6bn) and $35m (N13bn) in endorsements income. Endorsement incomes are an estimate of sponsorships, appearance fees and licensing incomes for the same 12-month period based on conversations with industry insiders.
Ronaldo’s earnings rose by $5m (N1.87b) against last year’s income. The list of elite athletes consists of players from 11 different sports.
Basketball dominates with a record 32 NBA players among the top 100, up from 18 in 2016, followed by baseball with 22, American football with 15 and football with nine.
The top 100 athletes earned a total of $3.11bn (N1.16tn) over the last 12 months, a slight decrease from last year's earnings of $3.15bn (N1.17tn).
The Top 10 are:
- Cristiano Ronaldo - football ($93m/N34.8bn)
- LeBron James - basketball ($86.2m/N32.1bn)
- Lionel Messi - football ($80m/N29.92bn)
- Roger Federer - tennis ($64m/N23.93bn)
- Kevin Durant - basketball ($60.6m/N 22.44bn)
- Andrew Luck - American football ($50m/N18.7b)
- Rory McIlroy - golfer ($50m/£38.74m/N25.61bn)
- Stephen Curry - basketball ($47.3m/N17.57bn)
- James Harden - basketball ($46.6m/N17bn)
- Lewis Hamilton - formula 1 ($46m/N17bn)
World number two tennis player, Serena Williams is the only woman on the list, she placed 51st overall, with $27m (N10bn) made last year.
