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RankingIncome: Federer is far behind Jordan
A Top 50 of the highest paid athletes in history has been published. It is dominated by basketball players and golfers.
Meeting between Roger Federer and Michael Jordan at the US Open 2014.
Getty Images via AFP
The American media Sportico has published a ranking of the 50 highest paid athletes in history. Our national Federer is in the top 10, with a 9th place, but tennis is not the king sport on the wallet side. In front of the Master, there are two footballers, two basketball players and three golfers.
First of this ranking, basketball legend Michael Jordan, with total revenue estimated at $3.3 billion. He is followed by three golfers: Tiger Woods (2.5 billion), Arnold Palmer (1.7) and Jack Nicklaus (1.63).
Where are the women?
Unsurprisingly, the two football stars represented are Cristiano Ronaldo (5th with 1.58 billion) and Lionel Messi (7th, 1.48 billion). Between them is a second basketball player, LeBron James, 6th with 1.53 billion. The only boxer in the top 10, Floyd Mayweather (8th, 1.41 billion) is also slightly ahead of the Swiss.
The sports that earn the most are therefore basketball, with 13 representatives in the top 50, golf (8) then boxing (6). Finally, we note a huge disparity between men and women: there is only one athlete in this ranking, Serena Williams, 38th, with 600 million dollars.
Specializing in the sports business, Sportico made these estimates with its own research and in connection with Forbes and “Sports Illustrated”. These amounts indicate all sporting and non-sporting income earned by athletes in their lifetime at the end of 2022, before taxation or redistribution to collaborators.
