Sportstar Salaries
Two days after 25 year-old American Giancarlo Stanton signed the largest MLB contract ever, a whopping $325m 13-year (£207m), $25m (£16m) per year, roughly $154,320.99 (£98,000) per game, it seems almost natural to try and compare him with the top earners in sport.
According to Forbes 2014 “List of the World’s highest-paid athletes, 37 year-old Floyd Mayweather is at the top having earned $105m (roughly £67m) from just 2 fights. The undefeated five-division world champion, is being lined up to take part in the so called “Billion Dollar Fight”, no, not a movie, the actual promotion title, if Manny Pacquiao (the Filipino WBO Light Welterweight Champion sitting in 11th place with his $41.8m) wins in Macao this Saturday night against American Chris Algieri.
Second on the list, Cristiano Ronaldo earned a cool $80m (£51m) with a $52m (£33m) Salary and $28m (£18m) from endorsements. The 29 year-old Portuguese striker signed a new 5-year contract in September 2013 and holds an impressive 1 goal per 86 minutes goal record for Real Madrid. His 27 year-old La Liga rival, Argentinean Lionel Messi, is “only” 4th with his $64.7m (£41m) of which $41.7 (£26.7m) comes from his salary and $23m (£15m) from endorsements.
Sitting either side of the Barcelona number 10, are NBA stars LeBron James (3rd) and Kobe Bryant (5th) on $72.3m (£46m) and $61.5m (£39m) respectively. Floyd Mayweather unbeaten in 47 professional fights, is only the second sportsman or sportswoman to break the $100m (£64m) barrier, after golfer Tiger Woods, despite having no personal endorsements. Woods was at the top of this list for 12 consecutive years until 2011 but paid the price for his disastrous personal scandal that hit public domain in 2009, which cost him, amongst others, the loss of endorsement contracts with the likes of AT&T and EA Sports. Having said this though, the 39 year-old, still manages to be 6th on this year’s list with his $61.2m (£39m) with a massive $55m (£35m) still coming from sponsorship and $6.2m (£4m) coming from salary and winnings despite him failing to win a major tournament since 2008.
The first tennis player on the list, Roger Federer, in 7th place with $56.2m (£35.9m) $4.2m (£2.7m) from his winnings, and $52m (£33.2m) from endorsements. The 33 year-old Swiss is considered to be one of the greatest of all time in his sport with his 17 Grand Slam title wins, but is also one of the most loved too.
The top man in Formula 1 (19th on the list), Lewis Hamilton earned $32m (£20.4m) total with a $29m (18.5m) salary and $3m (£1.9m) from endorsements. One can easily imagine him jumping a few places up the list if he succeeds in winning his second Formula 1 World Championship in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.Just a quick thought before you finish reading this, in the time it has take you to get this far, “Money Mayweather” has just earned a cool £255.