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Top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world ranked including Cristiano Ronaldo, Tyson Fury and LeBron James

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Updated 12:49 13 Feb 2025 GMTPublished 12:42 13 Feb 2025 GMT

Top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world ranked including Cristiano Ronaldo, Tyson Fury and LeBron James

The top 100 highest-paid athletes have been named and ranked.

Nasir Jabbar

Nasir Jabbar

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Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Tyson Fury have been named among the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world.

Sportico have published its findings on the highest-paid athletes in the world.

The 100 highest-paid athletes include players from eight sports and 27 countries.

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Per the report, they earned an estimated $6.2 billion in total income in 2024, including $4.8 billion in salary and prize money, as well as $1.4 billion off the field, court, course or track.

No women cracked the top 100, with tennis star Coco Gauff the top-earning female athlete at $30.4 million.

The top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world

Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list ahead of the likes of Steph Curry, Tyson Fury, Lionel Messi and LeBron James.

Ronaldo, 40, had salary/winnings of a whopping $215M and a further $45 in endorsements, with a staggering total of $260 million.

The Al Nassr superstar has earned over $100 million more than second-placed Curry, who earned a total of $153.8 million.

Fury, who had two extremely lucrative Saudi Arabia bouts against Oleksandr Usyk last year, comes in at No.3, with total earnings of $147 million ahead of Messi, who earned $135 million.

Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk during their world title bout. Image: Getty
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk during their world title bout. Image: Getty

NBA star James, footballer Neymar and world champion boxer Usyk are ranked fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

French football duo Karim Benzema and Kylian Mbappe and golfer Jon Rahm complete the top ten.

Check out the top 25 below:


  1. Cristiano Ronaldo - $260m
  2. Steph Curry - $153.8
  3. Tyson Fury - $147m
  4. Lionel Messi - $135m
  5. LeBron James - $133.2m
  6. Neymar - $133m
  7. Oleksandr Usyk - $122m
  8. Karim Benzema - $116m
  9. Kylian Mbappe - $110m
  10. Jon Rahm - $105.8m
  11. Scottie Scheffler - $104.3m
  12. Dak Prescott - $100.4m
  13. Giannis Antetokounmpo - $97.7m
  14. Kevin Durant - $93.1m
  15. Jared Goff - $85.8m
  16. Jordan Love - $81.6m
  17. Rory McIlroy - $79.8,m
  18. Max Verstappen - $76m
  19. Patrick Mahomes - $73.1m
  20. Canelo Alvarez - $73m
  21. Shohei Ohtani - $72.5m
  22. Joe Burrow - $70.7m
  23. Erling Haaland - $70m
  24. Justin Herbert - $67.6m
  25. Damian Lillard - $65.8m

Click here for the full list.

Featured Image Credit: Getty

Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo, Tyson Fury, Lionel Messi

Nasir Jabbar
Nasir Jabbar

Nasir Jabbar is a journalist at SPORTbible. He graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA in Media Communications. He's a combat sport aficionado and has contributed to MMA websites AddictedMMA and CagePotato. Nasir has covered some of the biggest fights, while interviewing the likes of Conor McGregor, Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Darren Till. He's also an avid Bristol City fan.

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@NasJabbar

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