Here Comes the Money 🤑
The contract, which is good through 2025, pays him over $200 million annually in salary…
They say a big reason for soccer’s global popularity is that you just need a ball and some open space to play it, which creates a legion of devoted fans from a young age. But for the top professionals, soccer is also insanely lucrative as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi continue to top the list of the highest-paid athletes of 2024.
A new list from Sportico made the soccer news when it showed Ronaldo topping the 100 highest-paid athletes for 2024 by a wide margin of over $100 million.
The top 100 athletes for 2024 earned more than $6.2 billion, representing a 14% increase over 2023’s list. None of the top 100 athletes were women, showing there’s still a significant gender gap that the Caitlin Clarks of the world can only hope to improve.
While those soccer legends topped the list, 58% of the list is composed of professional basketball (36) and NFL (22) players.
Here are the five highest-paid athletes of 2024.
Sportico have released a list of the 100 highest paid athletes in the world, there are:
🏀 36 basketball players
⚽️ 12 footballers
🏈 22 NFL players
🥊 6 boxers (including Jake Paul)
🏎️ 2 F1 drivers
⛳️ 9 golfers
⚾️ 11 baseball players
🎾 2 tennis players❌ 0 MMA fighters pic.twitter.com/FskRHLmWGI
— ACD MMA (@acdmma_) February 12, 2025
5. LeBron James ($133.2M)
Who says turning 40 means it’s over for an athlete? LeBron James joined Ronaldo as another top-five earner who just turned 40 to beat the betting odds after he made over $133 million with the Lakers this past season.
Only Curry made more endorsements than LeBron (over $80 million), and there were NBA rumors they’d be teaming up to play together. Instead, we’ll see what James can do with Luka Doncic on his team, a player who ranked 34th on the list at $55.9 million.
The @NBA dominated our Highest-Paid Athletes list, with 36 out of the top 100 spots belonging to hoopers. NBA players on this list earned $2.02B, more than $800 million higher than the @NFL players.
Worth noting that the first NFL player on the list is Dak Prescott at #12 👀⤵️ pic.twitter.com/4vOUkf5obx
— Sportico (@Sportico) February 12, 2025
4. Lionel Messi ($135M)
Let’s not forget Lionel Messi is the second team sport athlete to surpass $1 billion in career earnings. He comes in at No. 4 on the list with $135 million, and he received more endorsements than Ronaldo did.
In fact, Messi is one of 10 athletes for 2024 to make the list by earning more in endorsements than their salary/winnings.
💰This is how the 100 Highest-Paid Athletes in the world make their money ⬇️
Only 10 athletes earned more from endorsements/prize money than their salaries in 2024.
📊 via @LevAkabas pic.twitter.com/NpZdgbrdMJ
— Sportico (@Sportico) February 13, 2025
3. Tyson Fury ($147M)
The days of adding Tyson Fury to your boxing picks and predictions may be over after the British boxer announced his retirement in January 2025. We’ll see if he sticks to it or not.
Despite losing both of his 2024 matches to Oleksandr Usyk to drop his career record to 34-2-1, Fury still made just under $150 million last year.
Six boxers made the Top 100 Highest-Paid Athletes in the World list for 2024 🤑
🥊 Tyson Fury
🥊 Oleksandr Usyk
🥊 Canelo Alvarez
🥊 Anthony Joshua
🥊 Jake Paul
🥊 Naoya Inoue pic.twitter.com/qfxyGZucul— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) February 12, 2025
2. Steph Curry ($153.8M)
It was a fantastic 2024 for Steph Curry. Not only did he have that memorable performance to win his first gold medal at the Paris Olympics, but he also signed a $62.6 million contract extension to stay with the Warriors, the first player to earn $60 million in a single season just for playing NBA games.
But Curry also earned $100 million in endorsements in 2024, easily the most of any athlete.
Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry has agreed on a one-year, $62.6 million extension that’ll keep him under contract through the 2026-2027 season, his agent Jeff Austin of Octagon tells ESPN. pic.twitter.com/XdxeevrbIC
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 29, 2024
1. Cristiano Ronaldo ($260M)
Even though he is 40 years old now, Ronaldo is still basking in the record contract he received from Al Nassr at the end of 2022. The contract, which is good through 2025, pays him over $200 million annually in salary, and he made an additional $45 million through endorsement deals in 2024.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s reported contract at Al-Nassr will see him earn $548k a day 😳💰 pic.twitter.com/AFBVFP7Uel
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 31, 2022
Last year, Ronaldo became the first footballer to finish as the top scorer in four different leagues (English, Spanish, Italian, and Saudi leagues). No wonder the Cristiano Ronaldo net worth is near $600M.
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