The news around legendary football players and their contracts are over the place surrounding the high fees and payments for the players such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. But Forbes.com has recently released a list of highest paid athletes of all time, revealing that football contracts are not much of a big deal compared to some other sports.
With only one football player in the top ten, the list includes basketball players, drivers, golfers and boxers. There are four golfers among the top ten.
Some have ended up their professional sport career and said farewell to the games but still are among the highest paid ones.
National Basketball Association (NBA) of the US is torrent of money following big TV contracts with ESPN and TNT networks which flushes a high amount of money into the association as well.
Former NBA player of Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards during 1984-2003, Michael Jordan, 54, is atop the list with the total career earnings of $1.85 billion.
He still maintains his longtime endorsement relationships with Gatorade (energy drinks), Hanes (clothing) and Nike (American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development, manufacturing, and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services), but the investment that made him a billionaire was the $175 million fire-sale price he got the Charlotte Bobcats (now the Hornets) for in 2010. Jordan bumped his Hornets stake to 90% in 2013, and the team is now worth $780 million.
The second place belongs to golfer Tiger Woods, 41, with $1.7 billion.
The 14-time major winner has played only 18 official competitions since the start of 2014 because of injuries.
However, sponsors still see value in partnering with Woods, with TaylorMade, Bridgestone and Monster Energy the most recent additions to his endorsement portfolio.
Arnold Palmer (1929-2016), an American professional golfer who is generally regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport’s history, is ranked third with the career earnings of $1.4 billion.
Palmer died in September 2016, but his estate still banked $40 million during the last 12 months. More than 400 stores sell Arnold Palmer-branded apparel in Asia, with plans to move into new markets like Thailand and Vietnam.
On the fourth place sits Jack Nicklaus, 77, a retired American professional golfer with $1.2 billion of earnings.
Along with Tiger Woods, he is widely regarded as one of the two greatest golfers of all time, winning a record 18 career major championships, while producing 19 second-place and 9 third-place finishes, over a span of 25 years.
Nicklaus’ golf course design company is responsible for 410 courses in 41 countries. In addition to course design, the Nicklaus business empire includes real estate, ice cream, golf academies, lemonade and more.
Former F1 driver Michael Schumacher and all time record-holder with seven world titles is fifth with one billion dollar earnings.
He forcibly retired from his career due to health issues caused ski accident in 2013.
Golfer Phil Mickelson comes sixth in the list for his $815 million earnings for career prizes which also makes him the all time second earner of the prizes after Tiger Woods.
The seventh place is jointly taken by David Beckham, former English football payer of Manchester United, Paris Saint Germain and Real Madrid teams, and American retired basketball player Kobe Bryant, both with the total earnings of $800 million
Beckham started his youth career in 1985 and continued up to 2013. He holds a place in English Football Hall of Fame.
Bryant had the highest NBA salary in the final six seasons of his career. He played his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA. He is the third topscorer of all time in the NBA with 32,292 points after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.
Floyd Mayweather, American professional boxing promoter and former professional boxer is ranked ninth. He competed from 1996 to 2015.
During his career, he held 15 world titles in five weight classes and the lineal championship in four different weight classes. His career earnings up to June 2017 reached $785 million.
With $735 million earning, former NBA basketball player Shaquille O’Neal is on the 10th place of the highest paid athletes. Shaq’s low-cost sneaker line has sold more than 120 million pairs during his career.
After 19 years, O’Neal ended up playing career in 2011 and now works as a basketball analyst on the television program ‘Inside the NBA’.
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