Illustration: Lorenzo Gordon, Photo courtesy of Getty Images
All eyes are on Las Vegas this week as the world's richest sports league takes center stage with the Super Bowl. The NFL is financially huge by almost any metric, including record sponsorships, franchises worth an average of $5.1 billion, and 93 of the top 100 TV broadcasts in 2023.
However, when it comes to athlete income, NFL players fall short of the world's football players. The soccer star represents four of the six highest-paid athletes on the planet and seven of the top 25. The NFL has just two in the top 25 (Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson).
Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list with $275 million, thanks to sports' richest on-field contract and an off-field endorsement portfolio worthy of someone with 620 million Instagram followers. Rounding out the top five, based on estimated earnings through December 31, 2023, are Jon Rahm ($203 million), Lionel Messi ($130 million), and LeBron James ($125.7 million). ), Kylian Mbappé ($125 million).
sportico We connected with more than 40 people familiar with athlete contracts on and off the field, including teams, leagues, sports agencies, promotion companies, and consulting firms, to determine the 100 highest-paid athletes at some point in 2023. It includes athletes from 25 countries and eight sports who earned an estimated $5.4 billion last year. The total includes $4.2 billion in salaries and prize money, as well as $1.2 billion in sponsorship, memorabilia and performance fees.
Two major themes emerge: the impact of Saudi Arabia's sports investments and the lack of women in the top 100.
Click here for the complete list of 100 and detailed methodology.
saudi arabia $
Money is flowing into the top 100 from Saudi Arabia, which sees sport as a way to diversify the country's economy through the Saudi Vision 2030 plan unveiled by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2016. ing. Saudi Arabia's $700 billion-plus sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), controls these purse strings.
Novak Djokovic ($44.9 million, 46th place) and Carlos Alcaraz ($42.2 million, 56th place) played at the Saudi exhibition in December, and both tennis players earned seven-figure participation fees. They are scheduled to return for another lucrative exhibition in October. Boxer Tyson Fury ($40 million, 64th place) earned an estimated $32 million in prize money for his win over Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia in October, but even more for his title fight with Oleksandr Usyk in May. A good reward is expected.
But the two countries in which Saudi Arabia and the PIF are investing the most are soccer and golf. Ronaldo joined Al Nasr in January 2023 in a deal with an estimated annual salary of $215 million, becoming the first big-name player to move to the Saudi Professional League. Over the summer, transfers included Neymar ($121 million, 6th place), Karim Benzema ($78 million, 12th place) and Sadio Mane ($38 million, 70th place). The listed income for all these players is based on their combined salaries for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.
LIV Golf, which is funded by PIF, will have Brooks Koepka ($46.7 million, 39th place), Cameron Smith ($43.3 million, 51st place), and Dustin Johnson ($35.7 million, 86th place) in 2022. They signed players including. ), all received signing bonuses of at least $100 million. Most of these payments were paid in 2022, while some were paid in 2023. The bonus served as an incentive and helped replace advertising revenue lost after the move.
LIV did not poach any major stars on the PGA Tour in 2023, but Rahm announced in December that golf's cold war after a huge year on the golf course earned him $53 million in prize money, endorsements and bonuses. I changed sides. According to reports, his contract is worth between $300 million and $600 million, but people familiar with LIV's contract say the contract is pegged at a lower figure, with half paid upfront. It is estimated that Rahm's agent, Sports Five, would not comment on the bonus. LIV's prize money was also a windfall, as evidenced by Taylor Gooch ($40.2 million, 61st place), who finished at the top of the 2023 Tour money list.
“The sports industry has always chased the dollar,” Rick Burton, a sports management professor at Syracuse University, said in a phone interview. “These athletes are looking to build multi-generational wealth for their families. This is free market capitalism and they are exercising their right to see what the market will do. I am doing it.”
The rest of the PGA Tour's players' bank accounts will be buoyed by the tour's new “upgraded” events and 33% increase until 2023 wallet. Rory McIlroy ($77.4 million, 13th place), Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland (both $52.3 million, 27th place) each earn $30 million in annual prize money and tour bonuses, in addition to lucrative marketing contracts. I earned more than that.
For men only
this is sporticoThis is the third time the survey has conducted a survey of the world's highest-paid athletes, but the first time only men have been selected. Missing from the list are mainstay Serena Williams, who retired in 2022, and Naomi Osaka, who missed the 2023 tennis season to give birth to her daughter, Shai. For the past 15 years, tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Li Na have ranked among the highest-paid athletes in the world.
In recent years, the salaries of many female professional athletes have increased. The NWSL recently doubled its salary cap, and the LPGA has been steadily increasing prize money. However, tennis remains the most obvious path to maximum income for female athletes, with seven of the eight highest-paid female athletes last year being tennis players.
Coco Gauff ranks first in 2023 with an estimated $22.7 million in prize money, endorsements, and appearances. The 19-year-old star is on the rise quickly, and there's a world where her income could suddenly skyrocket into the range of Serena or Osaka. The difficult part is that the bar for being in the top 100 has risen each year as salaries in team sports have soared, largely due to major media deals.
This year's cutoff is $32.5 million (for New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr), compared to $29.6 million for the New Orleans Saints. sporticoSurvey of high income earners in May 2022. By our count, Gauff's 2023 income would not have put her on the list of the world's 200 highest-paid athletes.
Look at the numbers
The top 100 had revenue of $5.4 billion, an increase of 21% from the previous ranking. The sponsorship revenue portion is flat as sponsors monitor their spending, but the salary side is up 29%.
The top of the financial table is very international, with nine countries in the top 15, but thanks in large part to the high salaries of the NBA, NFL, and MLB, a total of 66 countries enter the top 100, with Americans making up the rest. He dominates the match. France is the only other country with more than one player, with Mbappé ranked first among the three French players.
Basketball players make up 40% of the top 100, followed by football (16%), baseball (13%), soccer (11%), golf (10%), boxing (6%), tennis (2%), and horse racing. And so on. (2%). Cricket, mixed martial arts and hockey were all shut out.
Ten athletes under the age of 26 qualified to compete, and 10 athletes over the age of 38 made it into the top 100, with both the youngest and oldest players listed in their own classes. At 20 years old, Alcaraz is nearly three years younger than the other players in the top 100. Next is Manchester City star Erling Haaland ($63 million, 18th place).
At 48 years old, Tiger Woods ($77.2 million, 14th place) is a full seven years older than Houston Astros pitcher Justin Verlander ($44.5 million, 48th place). The 15-time major champion played in just three tournaments last year and earned just $190,000 in prize money while recovering from ankle and foot surgery. But he is still the marketing force for sponsors Bridgestone, Hero, Monster Energy, Rolex and TaylorMade. Our earnings also include his lucrative contract with Nike, which expires at the end of 2023. Woods also finished second in the PGA Tour's Player Impact Program, earning him a $12 million bonus, which is nearly the entirety of his “prize money.”
The Los Angeles Clippers are the only team with three or more players in the top 100, including Russell Westbrook ($54 million, 25th), James Harden ($51.6 million, 29th), and Paul George. ($51.1 million, 29th place). (31st place) and Kawhi Leonard ($50.1 million, 33rd place) are firmly tied. NBA teams with three players on the list include the Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Milwaukee Bucks, New Orleans Pelicans, and Phoenix Suns, which ranks in the top 100 outside of the NBA. The only team with three players was the New York Yankees.
