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World's Top Paid Athlete for 2006

Each year Sports Illustrated Magazine's have published the Fortunate 50 (top paid US athletes) and the International 20 (top paid other athletes). It made sense to combine these two and create the World 10.



We have combined the 2006 Fortunate 50 and the 2006 International 20 lists to give you the top 10 paid athletes in the world in 2006 according to Sports Illustrated. Compare this list to the similar Forbes 2006 Top Paid Athletes List. Earning totals are based on salary, winnings, endorsements and appearance fees.

  Name Country Sport earnings (US$ million) previous year
1. Tiger Woods USA Golf 97.6 1
2. Michael Schumacher Germany Auto Racing 80.0 2
3. Phil Mickelson USA Golf 46.0 11
4. Shaquille O'Neal USA Basketball 34.0 4
5. Kobe Bryant USA Basketball 33.7 19
6. Carson Palmer USA American Football 31.6 >50
7. Valentino Rossi Italy Motor Sports 30.0 16
8. Ronaldinho Brazil Soccer 29.1 >50
9. LeBron James USA Basketball 28.6 10
10. Derek Jeter USA Baseball 28.0 14


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Lists Extra

Football/Soccer is clearly the world's most popular sport, and has the most popular athletes, but which sport has the fittest players (but not necessarily the greatest athlete). These players do not always earn the most. The best of the best have made it to our 7 Sporting Wonders Lists.

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