cristiano ronaldo

The 10 Highest Paid Athletes in the World in 2023

Countries in the Middle East are throwing millions into sports. And as a result, the top 10 highest-paid athletes in the world set records with eye-popping pay checks.

To even earn a spot in the top 10, you’d have to earn at least $89 million a year in salary and off-field endorsements. The top 10 highest paid athletes list features five Americans, including two golfers who quit the PGA Tour to join LIV.

And the top three are soccer players. OK, they’re football players in any other country but the United States. But they’re pulling big cash from Middle Eastern sources.

So who tops the list? It’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who left Manchester United last fall to play for Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr. Forbes estimates his earnings at $136 million. Maybe he heads back to the Premiere League later this year. But this is the third time he’s topped Forbes top 10 highest paid athletes. The media outlet notes that Ronaldo is so wildly popular that he has 850 million social media followers combined from Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. His off-field deals are approaching $100 million, with crypto exchange Binance recently signing the soccer star.

Forbes reported that the only three athletes who’ve ever topped Ronaldo’s $136 million in a single year are Roger Federer, Tiger Woods and Conor McGregor.

Lionel Messi waves to the crowd. He’s No. 2 on the world’s top 10 highest paid athletes. (Daniel Jayo/Getty Images)

LeBron James tops Americans as he holds off two LIV golfers

Lionel Messi is second at $130 million. He helped lead Argentina to the World Cup to close 2022. Forbes said he could return to Barcelona or head to Saudi Arabia to play with Ronaldo this year. He played for Paris Saint-Germain, which is owned by Qatar Sports Investments. Kylian Mbappé, the soccer star from France, is third on the world’s top 10 highest-paid athletes. Like Messi, he also plays for the Oatar-backed PSG. On the field, Mbappé is the sport’s highest earner. His off-field endorsements bring his annual salary to $120 million. And he’s also the only athlete under the age of 30 on this year’s rankings.

Now we come to the Americans. Of course, NBA legend LeBron James, at $119.5 million, tops Team USA but is fourth overall. Forbes pointed out that James became the first-ever active athlete to reach billionaire status. Golfer Dustin Johnson ranks sixth on the list. And it’s mostly thanks to his jump to the Saudi-owned LIV. He’s making $107 million, with $102 million coming from his golf earnings. Johnson didn’t even approach last year’s top 10 highest paid athletes. In fact, he wasn’t even in the top 50.

Meanwhile, Phil Mickelson ranks seventh. Like Johnson, he also jumped to LIV. He’s at $106 million, with $104 million coming from golf earnings in those high-dollar tournaments.

Phil Mickelson, at age 52, is earning big bucks on the LIV tour. He ranks fifth on the world’s top 10 highest paid athletes list. (Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

Golden State Warrior Steph Curry is in eighth with earnings of $100.4 million. And this is his first year to top $100 million. His money is almost equally divided between on-court and his business dealings out of the NBA arena.

And fellow NBA star Kevin Durant is 10th on the list at $89.1 million. Like Curry, his money is about 50-50 basketball salary vs endorsement deals.

Forbes estimates that the top 10 highest-paid athletes in the world earned $1.1 billion over the past year. That’s a record previously set in 2018 of $1.06 billion.

You can check out the rest of the names on the list by clicking here.