Top 10 richest Athletes in the world

Looking back at our younger days, many of us think about the changes we would have made to ensure a better future. For some, its the relationship with their parents, becoming more outgoing or studying more. For me, it has always been to pay more attention to sports as I used to enjoy them so much.

As I grew older and watched all of the people that actually took the chance and went professional, I always thought how are these people going to feed their families, sports can’t be a good way of making money, can it? Well, I was so wrong, that I feel embarrassed to be talking about it right now. Let me show you the top 10 richest Athletes in the world to illustrate how wrong I was and how there’s still a chance for you to go back to sports if your age permits it.

LeBron James

Initially, I wanted to make this a top ten, but I just couldn’t look at LeBron directly if I didn’t feature him, so welcome to the top 10+1 richest athletes in the world.

LeBron was only 19 years old when he had already taken part in an NBA season. This was his debut of a sort, which didn’t look nice as he was able to come back with only a bronze medal. However, seasons following that he was able to consecutively go for gold for 3 years.

In 2016 he was noticed by the Cleveland Cavaliers and given a $100 million contract, which back then made him the highest paid NBA player ever. After such a massive boost, LeBron became insanely famous and started to be featured in advertisements from big brands like Nike and Coca-Cola.

Thanks to all of this success, he is now sitting well at more than $400 million in net worth, reserving him an extra spot in this top 10 richest athletes article.

Michael Jordan

There will be no real ranking here as I’m just going to rank the ones I think are wealthy and famous enough.

Michael Jordan is basically the face of American Basketball. Many times have we seen sports anchors and analysts refer to up and coming young athletes as the next Jordan or mini Jordan. All of this praise didn’t come in vain as Michael Jordan was able to have one of the most successful sports careers, not only us but other athletes dream about. He has played in 15 seasons in the NBA, performing amazingly in all of them. But age gets to all of us and soon he had to retire. But that didn’t mean he was done with sports and being a celebrity, he was just done playing them. Nobody said anything about management. His years in the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards taught him a lot about team management, therefore he bought the Charlotte Hornets and has been managing them since.

Jordan is also known for his entrepreneurship and some side businesses he has going, which ultimately contributed to his title as potentially the richest athlete in the world. You have heard about Jordan Air sneakers (which are my favorite in the entire world!). After so much success you’d think that his net worth would be in the millions but you’d be wrong, it’s in the billions. More specifically, $1.7 billion.

Christiano Ronaldo

If you’re a football fan, you are definitely aware of who this young man is. He was able to mature in front of our very eyes as he started as a rookie in the teenager clubs. Soon after the English football clubs started to sniff around for new players and caught the scent of this up and coming superstar. In the 2003-2004 season, Ronaldo was able to get his first major contract with Manchester United, a famous and well-regarded football club.

His successes in the club ensured his transfer to Real Madrid, a place a bit closer to home, right now he resides in FC Juventus. All of these transferred over many years and in these years Ronaldo became one of the richest athletes in the world, not only for his skills in football but for his amazing looks as well. He has been regarded as the most handsome man in the world many times and has done advertisements for brands like Nike.

All of these success stories quickly gained him fame and fortune, which he now uses to take care of his loving family. His net worth is sitting at $450 million currently.

Lionel Messi

This young Argentinean has become a favorite of many football fans. His ways of playing the sport was a topic of discussion in many talk shows. Not only that, but he is regarded as the biggest rival that Christiano Ronaldo has ever had. There is an ongoing debate about who is the better player, but we also need to discuss who is the richest football player among these two?

In that case, the title goes to Christiano Ronaldo as Lionel Messi’s net worth is currently sitting roughly at $400 million not that far away from Ronaldo. Thanks to Messi’s amazing performances in the National team as well as FC Barcelona (a favorite of mine), he was able to strike quite a lot of advertising deals just like Ronaldo. You can see him appear in commercials like Turkish Airlines, alongside Kobe Bryant. Speaking of which…

Kobe Bryant

Kobe is known to pretty much everybody in the internet community. Even if you’re not a basketball fan you’ve probably seen people shout “Kobe!” when they toss something. This was a culture that the internet helped develop in regards to the athlete’s amazing skill of making long-distance shots and actually landing them.

His success mostly comes from his career in the LA Lakers (arguably one of the most popular teams out there), contributing to his name as one of the wealthiest NBA players of all time. His net worth is currently sitting at $500 million, which is yet to grow as Kobe ventures in the world of business, by investing in BodyArmor, an American sports drink.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

The Rock is a favorite of mine, he may not be the richest athlete of them all, but has one of the best success stories out there. You may remember him in his earlier days when he was a “pro wrestler” in the WWF. What you may not know is that before he started wrestling he was an up and coming football player in 1995, but was cut off from the team.

After the WWF career, Johnson became very popular thanks to his ability to entertain people. Soon, Hollywood took a notice of him and cast him as his own father in “That 70s Show”. After this first debut, Johson’s career in acting only grew and he became a fan favorite in some of the best comedies out there right now.

Thanks to his amazing physique, Johson is also an influencer, promoting a healthy lifestyle, while also playing in the best movies Hollywood comes up with. Ultimately earning him a net worth of $200 million, which is yet to grow.

Vince McMahon

As you can see I’m trying to create a bit of a pattern here and give some face-time to the WWF entertainers as well. You may know Vince from the popular internet meme.

Vince started out as a pro wrestler in the industry, quickly gaining fame as one of the more entertaining ones. Back in his tim,e not everybody was as flashy as you’d expect a modern wrestler to be like, but he still managed to gain a large following.

His success as a fan favorite gained him quite a lot of attention from the management of the Federation, which over the time gained him gained him enough experience to become the Majority owner and CEO of WWE. The company originally belonged to his father but was ultimately passed down onto him in the 1980s.

Vince is now sitting at a whopping $2.6 billion as his net worth. Although most of it is from his ownership of the company, his successes during the professional wrestling part of his career were a major contribution to his current state.

Other than that Vince has been enjoying some businesses on the side as well.

Michael Schumacher

Schumacher means “Shoe Maker” in German, but Michael is far from that. He is an iconic driver of the Formula One series of race cars. Try to remember the first time you heard his name, after that the only racer you probably knew was Schumacher himself, maybe he was the one who actually got you to watch the racing sport in the first place(that was the case for me).

Schumacher is regarded as the best Formula One driver to have ever existed. He has 7 championship prizes under his belt, 5 of which he won consecutively, ultimately setting a record.

Michael’s affiliation with cars helped him become the face of some of the best German brands out there, a face that was a welcome one for the viewers. His career and other dealings with different companies helped him earn more than $780 million in net worth.

Floyd Mayweather

Mayweather is regarded as one of the best MMA fighters in his weight category. He was able to prove this when he defeated Connor McGregor a few months ago in one of the, if not the most watched MMA fight in history.

Thanks to his skills as a fighter, Mayweather has been able to maintain an undefeated status of 50 wins and 0 defeats. Thanks to his popularity his wealth soared quite quickly enabling him to found his own company by the name of Mayweather Promotions, which deals in promoting the sport.

Mayweather’s net worth is estimated to be $560 million, which may be even higher after the fight. But nonetheless, this earns him a spot for the top 10 wealthiest athletes in the world.

Roger Federer

Federer is a world favorite in Tennis, he was able to maintain the title of #1 for 6 years consecutively. However, his age is starting to show, slowly inching him towards retirement. Even though Tennis is regarded as a calm sport with not many viewers, try to remember how many rich people you know who have a Tennis court in their backyard. Quite a lot right? It’s hard to explain why the world’s elite enjoy the sport so much.

Federer is an exceptional player, who has gathered quite a fan base, only comparable to Rafael Nadal’s fame. This fame over the years earned him the title of one of the wealthiest athletes in the world, with over $450 million in net worth.

David Beckham

Beckham is a fan favorite when it comes to football. nearly every fan out there today has heard his name or has seen him appear in some talk show or even movies.

Beckham was a great player, playing for the English national team as well as Manchester United, however, he was not as groundbreaking as some of the currently famous football players. Its safe to say that his looks had quite a lot of influence on his success over the years, easily becoming the favorite for female fans, which eventually earned him the title of one of the richest football players out there.

Thanks to his looks and sports background, Beckham was able to become the face of many popular self-care and fashion brands, which contributed to his current net worth of over $450 million.