The World's Highest Paid Athletes List 2020
The top earner for 2020 was tennis player Roger Federer, with earnings totaling 106.3 million US dollars. He is the first tennis player to rank No. 1 since the list was first created in 1990. Last year's number one, Lionel Messi, dropped to third. The football players who were the top three last year all dropped down the list due to corona-virus impacted salary cuts. For the first time since 2016 there are two women in the top 100 list, Naomi Osaka (29th) and Serena Williams (33rd).
Below is the top 10 of the highest earning sportspeople for 2020, taken from the annual list “The World's 100 Highest-Paid Athletes” published by Forbes magazine in June 2020. The earnings totals (in US dollars) are derived from salaries, bonuses, prize money, appearance fees, licensing and endorsement income in the 12 months from June 1, 2019 to June 1, 2020. 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 2020
| Rank | Name | Sport | Nationality | Earnings ($ million) | Previous Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roger Federer | Tennis | Switzerland | 106.3 | 5 |
| 2 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Soccer | Portugal | 105 | 2 |
| 3 | Lionel Messi | Soccer | Argentina | 104 | 1 |
| 4 | Neymar | Soccer | Brazil | 95.5 | 3 |
| 5 | LeBron James | Basketball | USA | 88.2 | 8 |
| 6 | Stephen Curry | Basketball | USA | 74.4 | 9 |
| 7 | Kevin Durant | Basketball | USA | 63.9 | 10 |
| 8 | Tiger Woods | Golf | USA | 62.3 | 11 |
| 9 | Kirk Cousins | American Football | USA | 60.5 | >100 |
| 10 | Carson Wentz | American Football | USA | 59.1 | >100 |
Next on the list were: Tyson Fury, Russell Westbrook, Lewis Hamilton, Rory McIlroy, Jared Goff, Conor McGregor, James Harden, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder.
Roger Federer, the first tennis player to rank No. 1 Highest Ranked For Each Sport in 2020
The highest ranked athlete from each sport is listed below. This year 10 different sports were represented on the list, with 35 NBA players being the most numerous, though the 31 NFL players on the list took home the most money thanks to their season being largely unaffected by the coronavirus.
| Overall Rank | Name | Sport | earning ($ million) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roger Federer | Tennis | 106.3 |
| 2 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Soccer | 105 |
| 5 | LeBron James | Basketball | 88.2 |
| 8 | Tiger Woods | Golf | 62.3 |
| 9 | Kirk Cousins | American Football | 60.5 |
| 11 | Tyson Fury | Boxing | 57 |
| 13 | Lewis Hamilton | Auto Racing | 54 |
| 16 | Conor McGregor | MMA | 48 |
| 57 | Clayton Kershaw | Baseball | 27.3 |
| 66 | Virat Kohli | Cricket | 26 |
source: from “The World's 100 Highest-Paid Athletes” published by Forbes magazine in June 2020.
Related Pages
- See the top earning lists from other years.
- Top paid women for 2020
- Other world sport lists
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