Leo Messi

A $20 million annual partnership between Lionel Messi and Socios will be added to the approved portfolio, which includes Adidas, Budweiser and PepsiCo. He also became the first brand ambassador for Hard Rock International since the deal announced last June and helped raise the bar with Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo for the first time since 2013. Messi won the Ballon d'Or in 2021.

He has recently struggled on the pitch, scoring 38 goals in 47 games in his last season with Barcelona, and then scoring just nine goals in 32 games for Paris Saint-Germain. However, while PSG were exhausted in the 16th round of the Champions League, in the very first season of Messi, the club won the French Ligue 1 title.

LeBron James

LeBron James' Los Angeles Lakers haven't made the playoffs this season, but he hasn't been too dominant off the court. He starred in Space Jam: The New Legacy last year and recently moved the HBO talk show The Shop to YouTube. Forbes estimates that in October he sold a significant minority stake in Spring Hill, the production company behind the two projects, with a valuation of approximately $725 million and a net worth of $850 million. After announcing the approval of the Crypto.com deal in January, James starred in a Super Bowl commercial alongside his junior CG. He has also recently invested in home fitness companies Tonal and Status PRO. It is a sports technology startup that creates products for training in virtual reality.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Like his rival Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo has endured his first frustrating season with his new team. Manchester United remained in sixth place in the Premier League with just one game to go. Rumor has it that Ronaldo, who played for Manchester United from 2003 to 2009, could move back into the transfer window this summer. Much of Ronaldo's profit comes from his massive social media presence. He has 690 million followers on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and can charge sky-high fees from sponsors like Nike, Herbalife and Clear Shampoo. He is also an investor in Tatel restaurants, including a new restaurant in Beverly Hills, and the face of Zuju GP, a future app aimed at the digital football community.

Neymar

Neymar scored his 400th career goal in November but, like Lionel Messi, came under fire following Paris Saint-Germain's early Champions League finish. His attention has shifted to the World Cup in Qatar this fall and he said it could be his last. Off the field, he has received valuable support from the likes of Puma and Red Bull and is the subject of a new Netflix documentary Namer: Perfect Chaos. He also entered the NFT world by signing with the NFTSTAR platform in November and spending over $1 million on two Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs on January 1st.

Stephen Curry

No NBA player has paid as much this season as Stephen Curry. The Golden State Warriors point guard will increase his salary after signing a four-year, $215 million contract last August. Next season, he will earn about $48 million on the court, and will rise to $60 million in the 2025/26 season. Curry's new deal to back FTX also included an equity stake. In December, the company delved into the blockchain by introducing sneakers and releasing a collection of NFTs linked to three Metaverse platforms. (He promised to donate the proceeds.) Meanwhile, Curry's production company, Unanimous Media, signed a development deal with ComcastNBC Universal in September.

Kevin Durant

Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant earns about $ 28 million a year from Nike, and among active players, the sneaker business is second only to LeBron James ($ 32 million). He recently signed deals with Coinbase, the NBA Top Shot, and Weedmaps, but with media company Boardroom and investment company Thirty Five Ventures, his business empire goes far beyond support. The NFT platform OpenSea and digital fitness startup Future are one of the latest investments to support the merger of SeatGeek and SPAC. Duran and his business partner Rich Kleiman also announced last year that they would launch their own SPAC. Still looking for an acquisition.

Roger Federer

Due to the injury, Roger Federer has been limited to a total of six tournaments in 2020 and 2021 and has not yet returned to the tennis court in 2022. Uniqlo and Rolex. .. It also invested in Swiss emerging shoe brand On in 2019, launched in September and raised more than $ 600 million. After spending 20 days in the lab with the on-team developing the company's professional shoes, Federer told Forbes at the time, "We are very close to product design."

Canelo Alvarez

The Cineol Álvarez is a better fighter, earning over $ 40 million in two pay-per-view wins in May and November. (His defeat to light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on May 7, 2022 was outside the Forbes tracking window on this list.) Outside the ring, Alvarez has a beneficial partnership with Hennessy. It is tied and owns a tacos restaurant in his native Mexico with plans to expand. To California. Last year, Alvarez said he would launch a network of gas stations, and his Canero promotion is working with matchroom boxing and DAZN to prepare for a series of battles in Mexico.

Tom brady

Tom Brady's off-season retirement lasted less than six weeks. This was welcome news for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the exciting 2021 season at the age of 43. He is definitely learning some new tricks off the field. Brady's co-founded NFT platform, Autograph, raised $ 170 million in a Series B funding round announced in January and is a production company he co-founded with the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Of sports. Director Gotham Chopra has announced a content agreement. At Sky Dance Sports in March. Meanwhile, his other production company, 199 Productions, is behind Brady's next 80's road trip flick and has a new line of smartwear called BRADY. And when it was finally time to retire from football forever, Brady had already lined up his next lucrative job, the role of commentary on Fox Sports. According to the New York Post, the deal is expected to generate more revenue than the amount earned in the field in the NFL's 22 seasons. That's $ 375 million in 10 years.

Janis Adetokumpo

Neymar turned 30 in February and Janis Adetokumpo is the only player in the top 10 of the year who is not yet 20 years old. The two Milwaukee Bucks MVPs signed a five-year, $ 228 million contract in December 2020. NBA in total to date. It's one of the investors in WatchBox's $ 165 million funding round announced in November, signing a license agreement with the NFT platform NFSTAR and adding WhatsApp and Google Pixel 6 phones to the stables. did. And Antetokounmpo will soon be able to see his life story in his biography, Uprising, which will appear in Disney + in June.

Methodology

Forbes Field's revenue data includes all prizes, salaries and bonuses earned between May 1, 2021 and May 1, 2022. NBA and European Soccer: Set salaries for the entire season. Includes playoff bonuses for the 2021 NFL season and the 2020-21 NBA season.

Off-field revenue data comes from 12 months of backlog transactions, performance fees, souvenir and license revenues, and athlete-managed businesses for the 12 months to May 1, 2022, according to conversations with industry experts. Estimated cash income. Forbes does not include investment returns such as interest or dividend payments, but does include payments for shares sold by athletes.