Conor McGregor tops the ranking of the 10 highest-paid athletes in the world

This Brett Knight article appeared on Forbes.com

Despite the year 2020 in which the most important athletes in the world worked with a reduced salary and played in empty or isolated stadiums in specially created bubbles, to confront a pandemic that included Billionaire losses For professional sports, though, it couldn’t have been better, at least financially.

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It is not a coincidence, in fact, if The ten highest-paid athletes in the world made pretax gains of $ 1.05 billion In the past twelve months, an increase of 28% over the previous year. It is thus a few million dollars less than the record of $ 1.06 billion set in 2018. The year boxer Floyd Mayweather made $ 285 million, almost entirely due to the 2017 match against Conor McGregor, which was broadcast on the system. Pay per view.

Just MacGregor, Among other things, thanks to his fame in mixed martial arts, he built an economic empire outside of the UFC Octagon with him Top the ranking. Earnings in the last 12 months, $ 180 million. Of these, the majority, or 150 million, comes from the recent sale of its majority stake in Proper No. Twelve whiskey to Proximo Spirits. In addition to being his second appearance in the top ten (after fourth place he took $ 99 million in 2018 thanks to a challenge with Mayweather), this is the first time ever that the 32-year-old has won first place in the ranking of the highest-paid athletes. In the world. Plus, it’s pretty clear McGregor wants to invest his money outside of alcohol as well: in the last tweet In fact, he announced an unlikely idea of ​​buying Manchester United, the Premier League’s most valuable team.

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Adding in income from his sponsorship, McGregor has earned $ 158 million outside of his wrestling career over the past 12 months. He became the third athlete, after Roger Federer and Tiger Woods, to earn more than $ 70 million worth of stadiums in just one year, while still competing.

This year, the profits of three other stars also exceeded $ 100 million – Soccer Stars Lionel Messi e Cristiano Ronaldo And the NFL midfielder, Dak Prescott. Messi, whose summer struggle with Barcelona exposed the club’s disastrous financial situation the value From his $ 674 million contract, he earned $ 130 million. The number that set a new record for a soccer player. Prescott, on the other hand, with $ 107.5 million, broke the record for Nlf players, thanks to a $ 66 million signing bonus with the Dallas Cowboys. Previously, only five athletes earned more than $ 100 million in one year: Federer, Mayweather, Neymar, Manny Pacquiao and Woods. And when that happened, there were three of them at the same time who had crossed that number. As in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

10 highest paid athletes in the world

1. Conor McGregor
   Age: 32
   Country: Ireland
   Sports: MMA
   Earnings off the field: $ 158 million
   Earnings from the field: $ 22 million
   Total earnings: $ 180 million
2. Lionel Messi
   Age: 33
   Country: Argentina
   Sports: football
   Earnings off the field: $ 33 million
   Profits from the field: $ 97 million
   Total earnings: $ 130 million
3. Cristiano Ronaldo
   Age: 36
   Country: Portugal
   Sports: football
   Court earnings: $ 50 million
   Earnings from the field: $ 70 million
   Total earnings: $ 120 million
4. Dak Prescott
   Age: 27
   Country: United States of America
   Sports: football
   Court earnings: $ 10 million
   Profits from the field: $ 97 million
   Total earnings: $ 107.5 million
5. LeBron James
   Age: 36
   Country: United States of America
   Sports: basket
   Earnings off the field: $ 65 million
   Earnings from the field: $ 31.5 million
   Total earnings: $ 96.5 million
6. Neymar
   Age: 29
   Country: Brazil
   Sports: football
   Earnings off the field: $ 19 million
   Earnings from the field: $ 76 million
   Total earnings: $ 95 million
7. Roger Federer
   Age: 39
   Country: Switzerland
   Sports: tennis
   Earnings off the field: $ 90 million
   Earnings from the field: $ 0.03 million
   Total earnings: $ 90 million
8. Lewis Hamilton
   Age: 36
   Country: United Kingdom
   Sports: Formula 1
   Court earnings: $ 12 million
   Earnings from the field: $ 70 million
   Total earnings: $ 82 million
9. Tom Brady
   Age: 43
   Country: United States of America
   Sports: football
   Earnings off the field: $ 31 million
   Earnings from the field: $ 45 million
   Total earnings: $ 76 million
10. Kevin Durant
    Age: 32
    Country: United States of America
    Sports: basket
    Earnings off the field: $ 44 million
    Earnings from the field: $ 31 million
    Total earnings: $ 75 million