For the third year in a row, and the fifth time overall, Cristiano Ronaldo is the world’s highest-paid athlete. At age 40, the Portuguese soccer superstar is reaching new highs.
Over the past 12 months, counting both his playing salary at Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr and his off-field business endeavours, Ronaldo collected an estimated $275 million before taxes and agent fees—the third-best year by an active athlete ever measured by Forbes.
Ronaldo has a $119 million advantage over Number 2, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.
The gap is especially impressive considering that Curry’s $156 million total is also a record for his sport, beating the NBA mark of $128.2 million set last year by LeBron James. And there are plenty of other eye-popping paydays among this year’s 10 highest-paid athletes, starting with James, who notched a personal-best $133.8 million to land at Number 6.
Meanwhile, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (Number 4, $137 million) and New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto (Number 7, $114 million) broke records for the NFL and MLB.
Combined, the 10 highest-paid athletes brought in $1.4 billion, up slightly from last year’s $1.38 billion and the largest total since Forbes began ranking athlete earnings in 1990.
This year is also only the second time, after 2024, that every member of the top 10 made at least $100 million. In fact, heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk ($101 million) and golfer Jon Rahm ($100 million) reached the milestone too without managing to crack this list.
See Full List:
1 • $275M
Cristiano Ronaldo
2 • $156M
Stephen Curry
3 • $146M
Tyson Fury
4 • $137M
Dak Prescott
5 • $135M
Lionel Messi
6 • $133.8M
LeBron James
7 • $114M
Juan Soto
8 • $104M
Karim Benzema
9 • $102.5M
Shohei Ohtani
10 • $101.4M
Kevin Durant