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The World's Highest Paid Athletes List 2014

Below is the top 10 of the highest earning sports people from 2014, taken from the annual list “The World's 100 Highest-Paid Athletes” published by Forbes magazine in June 2014.



Tiger Woods' slide on the top earners list continues, down to 6th this year, while boxer Floyd "Money" Mayweather jumps back to the top. He also topped the list in 2012. In the last year, Mayweather had two big earning days, making him the second athlete ever to earn more than $100 million in a year.

Three women make the top 100 list and they're all tennis players: Maria Sharapova at No. 34 ($24.4 million), Li Na is No. 41 ($23.6 million) and Serena Williams is No. 55 ($22 million). See the top 10 paid females for 2014.

The earnings totals (in US dollars) are derived from salaries, bonuses, prize money, appearance fees, licensing and endorsement income in the 12 months from May 1, 2013 to May 1, 2014. Taxes or agents' fees are not factored into the figures. See also the Forbes top earning lists from other years.

Top-10 Highest Earning Sports people from 2014

Rank Name Sport Nationality earning
($ million)
previous year
1 Floyd Mayweather Boxing USA 105.0 14
2 Cristiano Ronaldo Soccer Portugal 80.0 9
3 LeBron James Basketball USA 72.3 4
4 Lionel Messi Soccer Argentina 64.7 10
5 Kobe Bryant Basketball USA 61.5 3
6 Tiger Woods Golf USA 61.2 1
7 Roger Federer Tennis Switzerland 56.2 2
8 Phil Mickelson Golf USA 53.2 7
9 Rafael Nadal Tennis Spain 44.5 >14
10 Matt Ryan American Football USA 43.8 >100

Next on the list were: Manny Pacquiao, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Derrick Rose, Gareth Bale, Radamel Falcao, Neymar, Novak Djokovic, Matthew Stafford, Lewis Hamilton, Kevin Durant

source: from “The World's 100 Highest-Paid Athletes” published by Forbes magazine in June 2014.



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