World class soccer star, Cristiano Ronaldo has been ranked as the highest-paid athlete in the world by Forbes.
The Real Madrid star is the first footballer to ever top the annual list of the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes, having earned $88m in the last 12 months.
He earned $6.6m more than Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, who is second with $81.4m
| Name | Sport | Salary + endorsements ($m) |
| Cristiano Ronaldo (Por) | Football | 88.0 |
| Lionel Messi (Arg) | Football | 81.4 |
| LeBron James (USA) | Basketball | 77.2 |
| Roger Federer (Sui) | Tennis | 67.8 |
| Kevin Durant (USA) | Basketball | 56.2 |
| Novak Djokovic (Srb) | Tennis | 55.8 |
| Cam Newton (USA) | American football | 53.1 |
| Phil Mickelson (USA) | Golf | 52.9 |
| Jordan Spieth (USA) | Golf | 52.8 |
| Kobe Bryant (USA) | Basketball | 50.0 |
| Lewis Hamilton (Eng) | Formula One | 46.0 |
| Tiger Woods (USA) | Golf | 45.3 |
| Eli Manning (USA) | American football | 45.0 |
| Joe Flacco (USA) | American football | 44.5 |
| Tom Brady (USA) | American football | 44.1 |
| Floyd Mayweather (USA) | Boxing | 44.0 |
| Rory McIlroy (NIrl) | Golf | 42.6 |
| Russell Wilson (USA) | American football | 41.8 |
| Sebastian Vettel (Ger) | Formula One | 41.0 |
| Philip Rivers (USA) | American football | 38.0 |
