The World’s Highest-Paid Athletes

The World’s Highest-Paid Athletes

Preston Price

Professional athletes earn a lot, and the stars of the world are dollar multimillionaires. Every year the ranking of the highest paid athletes is updated, and different sports are also included in the top ten. So who made the most money in 2022 by making playing and competing their profession?

Top athletes who managed to earn the most in 2022

Sportico has published data on the 100 highest-paid athletes worldwide. Making the rating, its analysts conducted a great job, taking into account the income of athletes directly from sporting events, as well as profits stars from advertising projects and their own business.

The top 100 includes athletes from 10 sports from 24 countries.

The 10 highest-paid athletes in the world according to Sportico:

  1. LeBron James – The 37-year-old Los Angeles Lakers (NBA) basketball forward is at the peak of his career and earned $126.9 million in 2022, moving up from fifth in the rankings to first in the last year.
  2. Lionel Messi is the king of Argentine soccer, the seven-time winner of the major individual soccer trophy, the Golden Ball. Despite his considerable age (he is 35), he continues to play for a top French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain. He earned $ 122 million during the year.
  3. Cristiano Ronaldo is a 37-year-old Portuguese footballer who plays for Manchester United in the English Premier League, the captain of the national team. The most popular sports blogger on Instagram (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) with 500 million followers. In 2022, Ronaldo’s fortune increased by $ 115 million.
  4. Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior is a 30-year-old forward for the Brazilian national soccer team, currently playing for soccer club Paris Saint-Germain (France), one of the best forwards in world history. Neymar earned $103 million this year.
  5. Canelo Alvarez is the only boxer of the top 10, 32-years-old athlete in the WBC middleweight division, WBO and WBA world champion, the best boxer of the year 2022 according to The Ring. The highest paid boxer of 2022, with earnings of $89 million.
  6. Stephen Curry is a North American NBA star, playing at the point guard position, four-time NBA champion, twice named best player of the season (2015, 2016). Now playing for the Golden State Warriors, the 34-year-old Stephen Curry earned $86.2 million in 2022.
  7. Kevin Durant is a 34-year-old professional NBA basketball player with the Brooklyn Nets who plays for the U.S. national team. World champion and Olympic gold medalist. Athletic competition and advertising contracts have allowed Kevin Durant to earn $85.9 million in 2022.
  8. Roger Federer is a former men’s world number one, 41-year-old Swiss professional tennis player and popular blogger. For 2022 he earned “only” $ 724,000, but advertising contracts and blogging brought Federer another $ 85 million.
  9. James Harden is one of the best basketball players in the NBA today, an Olympic gold medalist and a regular participant in NBA All-Star games. The 33-year-old Harden currently plays for the Philadelphia Seventy Sixers as an offensive guard. Total earnings for 2022 are $76 million.
  10. Tiger Woods is a legendary American golfer who has won PGA Tour tournaments 82 times and the Europe Tour 40 times. The first-ever billionaire athlete. In 2022, he earned $73.5 million, of which only $8.5 million in prize money.

So, Sportico says the world’s highest-paid athlete in 2022 among men is NBA superstar LeBron James, among women, first-ranked Japanese Naomi Osaka (in the “general standings” she is on the 20th place with the result of $ 53.2 million: $ 1.2 – prize money, $ 52 – income from non-sports entrepreneurship (advertising, production of skin care products of own line, etc.)). Virtually all of the above-mentioned persons were successful not only in sports, but also in business; their names are often used to build advertising campaigns and invite them to the opening of various events, thus attracting even more people. For example, almost all of the most famous athletes have been the face of betting companies and online casinos.

The highest paid sports in the world

The Sportico and Forbes rankings include the 100 and 50 highest-paid athletes in the world, respectively, but the composite top sports with the highest salaries is less numerous. There are only 10 positions:

  1. Basketball.
  2. Soccer.
  3. Tennis.
  4. Boxing.
  5. American soccer.
  6. Golf.
  7. Auto racing (F1).
  8. Ice hockey.
  9. Baseball.
  10. MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) – mixed martial arts.

Based on the Forbes ranking, the most profitable sports for athletes are only 8:

  1. Soccer.
  2. Basketball.
  3. Tennis.
  4. Boxing.
  5. American soccer.
  6. Golf.
  7. Auto racing.
  8. MMA.

Forbes has calculated that the world’s 50 highest-paid athletes professionally involved in these eight sports earned a total of $2.97 billion before taxes and agency fees for the year (May 2021-May 2022). That’s 8 percent ($200 million) more than last year.

The 100 highest-paid athletes in the world according to Sportico, the publication estimates, for 2022 all together earned $4.46 billion, of which $3.24 billion in wages and prize money and $1.23 billion off the field, court or ring – for the promotion of goods and services, from their own businesses, etc.

Athletics