Forbes releases 2016 World's 100 Highest-Paid Athletes list

Forbes on 8 June 2016 released the list of 2016 World's 100 Highest-Paid Athletes. The list has been topped by soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo with earnings of 88 million US dollars.

The 100 top-earning athletes hail from 23 countries and compete in ten sports with Americans (65) and baseball players (26) are being the most numerous among all sports. Over the last 12 months, they banked a cumulative 3.15 billion US diollars out of which 29 percent of which came from endorsements and appearances.

Highlights of the list

• Ronaldo is only the second team athlete after Michael Jordan to rank as the top-paid since Forbes began tracking athlete earnings in 1990.

• Other soccer superstar Lionel Messi ranks No. 2 with earnings of 81.4 million US dollars. He earned bonuses from Barcelona and chief sponsor Adidas when he racked up his fifth FIFA player of the year award in January 2016.

• The NBA’s LeBron James ranks third with total earnings of $77.2 million and leads 18 basketball players on the list

• Roger Federer is the top-earning athlete in an individual sport with 67.8 million US dollars, ranks fourth followed by Basket ball player Kevin Durant with 56.2 million US dollars.

• Novak Djokovic lands in the top 10 for the first time at No. 6 with 55.8 million US dollars over the past 12 months.

• The two athletes Golfer Tiger Woods and boxer Floyd Mayweather who have dominated the top of Forbes’ annual look at the highest-earners in sports over the past decade and a half have dropped their ranks to No.12 and No. 16 respectively.

• Earlier to 2016 list, Tiger Woods landed the No. 1 spot for 12 times, while Floyd Mayweather was ranked among the first three places for the past four years.

• Serena Williams (No. 40) and Maria Sharapova (No. 88) are the only two women to make the cut in the list for the second straight year.

How the earnings are calculated?

• The earnings were calculated based on salaries, prize money and bonuses paid out between 1 June 2015, and 1 June 2016.

• Endorsement incomes are an estimate of sponsorships, appearance fees and licensing incomes for the same 12 month period based on conversations with dozens of industry insiders.

• Taxes or agents’ fees are not deducted and investment income in not included.

• The list only includes athletes active during the given period.

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