Forbes has published a new ranking of the 50 highest paid athletes of the past twelve months. The list includes representatives of football, including American, basketball, boxing, tennis, golf, baseball and motor sports.
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were expected to be the highest paid drivers, with earnings of $65 million and $64 million respectively. With such a “modest” income by the standards of the rest of the rating participants, Lewis and Max could not even get into the top twenty. The Mercedes driver is in 21st place, the reigning world champion in 22nd. Other riders did not make the Top 50.
At the same time, Max Verstappen was among the top three highest-paid athletes under the age of 25, second only to football player Kylian Mbappé ($120 million) and American football player Kyler Murray ($70.5 million).
Cristiano Ronaldo is the world’s highest paid sportsman for Al-Nasr and the Portugal national team. Forbes experts estimate his income at $136 million.
The highest paid athletes in 2023
| Athlete | Total income | Kind of sports |
| 1.Cristiano Ronaldo | $136 million | football |
| 2.Lionel Messi | $130 million | football |
| 3. Kylian Mbappe | $120 million | football |
| 4. LeBron James | $119.5 million | basketball |
| 5.Saul Alvarez | $110 million | boxing |
| 6.Dustin Johnson | $107 million | golf |
| 7.Phil Mickelson | $106 million | golf |
| 8 Stephen Curry | $100.4 million | basketball |
| 9.Roger Federer | $95.1 million | tennis |
| 10.Kevin Durant | $89.1 million | basketball |
| … | ||
| 21.Lewis Hamilton | $65 million | formula 1 |
| 22.Max Verstappen | $64 million | formula 1 |
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
