Top earners
These are the highest paid athletes in the world
Conor McGregor cashes most among the sports superstars of the planet
© John Gurzinski / AFP
Many professional athletes receive huge amounts of money for the exercise of their sport. Nevertheless, some of them earn a Zubrot off the pitch, which significantly exceeds the sporting income.
Mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor is currently the highest paid athlete-the Irishman has earned around 180 million US dollars since May 2020. The remaining podium places are occupied by Lionel Messi (130 million US dollars) and Cristiano Ronaldo (120 million US dollars), two footballers, as the Statista graphic shows. Neymar is the third soccer player in the top 10 – the Brazilian is behind quarterback Dak Prescott (108 million US dollars) and NBA star LeBron James (97 million US dollars) from the USA with about 95 million US dollars.
Last year’s top earner, Roger Federer, earned about $ 90 million last year-according to Forbes, the Swiss earned only about $ 30,000 on the tennis court, and most of his income comes from advertising deals. McGregor’s, James’s and Durant’s greatest sources of income are also outside of their work as athletes. While the two basketball players mainly make a splash with their own sneaker line at Nike, the martial artist cashes in through various advertising appearances and his own whiskey brand.
