Cristiano Ronaldo has once again topped Sportico’s annual list of highest-paid athletes, earning twice as much as his long-time rival Lionel Messi in 2025.
The striker Al-Nassr earned an income of 260 million dollars, and there are a total of 13 footballers on the list of the 100 highest paid footballers, while the Brazilian Neymar recorded a significant decline, writes Goal.com.
This is Ronaldo’s third year in a row at the top of Sportic’s list. His contract with the Saudi Pro League club reportedly earns him $200 million a year, with an additional $60 million from other business ventures.
The Portuguese has earned at least $100 million for nine years in a row, and this is the third time his earnings have exceeded $200 million.
His success off the field is also based on a record number of followers on social networks, which in total exceeds one billion, and on lucrative sponsorship partnerships with companies such as Nike, Herbalife, Binance, Perplexity, Yili and Therabody.
Lionel Messi is in third place on the list with earnings of $130 million in 2025, which is half of Ronaldo’s amount. The Argentina star has signed a new contract with MLS Cup winners Inter Miami, keeping him until 2028.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo is also working to extend his contract with Al-Nassr until the summer of 2027, and it is mentioned that both could feature in this year’s World Cup, which is being held in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Between the two football players, the Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez placed second on the list, thanks to a lucrative contract with Saudi promoters.
Brazil’s Neymar, who is also mentioned as a possible participant in the World Cup, fell to 30th place in the rankings. After terminating his contract with Saudi Al-Hilal, he returned to his parent club Santos in early 2025.
Due to significantly lower income in South America, his earnings fell by almost 50 million dollars compared to the previous year.
The total earnings of the 100 highest-paid athletes is $6.05 billion, which is a 2.1% decrease compared to last year. The threshold for entering the men’s list was 37.9 million dollars, while the highest paid athlete is tennis player Coco Gauff with earnings of 37.5 million dollars.
The most represented sport is basketball, with 40 NBA players on the list. They are led by LeBron James, who was the highest paid basketball player in 12 of the last 13 seasons.
American football follows with 22 players from the NFL, among whom Patrick Mahomes earns the most.
Soccer has 13 representatives in the top 100, five of them in the top 20. Karim Benzema, who also plays in the Saudi Pro League, is in sixth place, Kylian Mbappé is outside the top ten and Erling Haaland is in 18th place.
(Vijesti.ba)
