They don’t call him “Money” for nothing. Floyd Mayweather, once again tops the Forbes list of highest paid athletes this year and not a single NFL Baller comes close!
Floyd sits at #1, earning $300 million this year and just under him at #2 is Manny Pacquiao with $160 million. Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo comes in third at $79.6 million and Argentinian soccer player Lionel Messi comes in fourth at $73.8 million. Messi is currently facing tax fraud allegations though, but that’s a story for another day.
Lebron James comes in as the highest played NBA player of the year with $64.8 million, landing sixth on the list. He’s followed by Kevin Durant with $54.1 million. Kobe rounded out the top 10 with $49.5 million.
At number 11 we finally see our very first NFL player, Ben Roethlisberger, bringing in $48.9 million for the year. The next time someone in football is present on the list is Ndamukong Suh at number 16, bringing in $38.6 million.
So if you sit and go through the list, it looks like the highest paid sport worldwide, continues to be soccer. Boxing holds the award for highest paid athletes, followed by quite a few tennis, PGA and NBA stars. NFL seems to be great for concussions, not so great for the pockets.
Read the entire list HERE.