Floyd Mayweather Jr. may be the highest-paid athlete in the world as of the moment, but the title of the highest-paid team sportsman belongs to Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid.
A three-time Ballon d’Or winner including this year, the Portuguese sensation is also the richest football player in the world according to the 2015 Goal Rich List, notes Yahoo! Sports.
In the past, soccer players lag behind America’s big three sports of basketball, baseball and football, but now Ronaldo and Argentina’s Lionel Messi, currently playing for Barcelona, are now lording it over the list of highest-paid athletes in team sports. Messi is fourth on the list, right after third-running LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
While the title of the highest-paid athlete still belongs to Money Mayweather and will likely remain so this year given the richest mega-fight in boxing history with Manny Pacquiao this May 2, Ronaldo is likely to retain the second spot by the end of 2015.
In 2014, Ronaldo earned a total of $80 million, which was second only to Mayweather’s $105 million according to the Forbes list of 100 top-paid athletes.
Next in line
But it is likely that Ronaldo will take the throne from Mayweather once the pound-for-pound king retires from boxing should he loses to Pacquiao on May 2 or continue to fight until he gets to 50-0 and retire from boxing for good next year.
Assuming that Mayweather wins over Pacquiao on May 2, he will most likely go for two more fights and retire in the middle of next year. But if he loses on May 2, there is a possibility that the 38-year-old boxer might hang up his gloves this year.
Any which way it goes, Ronaldo would likely become the highest-paid athlete in the world once Mayweather exits the picture, which should be happening either this year or next year.
Ronaldo has re-signed a contract extension with Real Madrid in 2013 which made him the best-paid player on the planet with a $52 million a year contract, which is quite commensurate to his reputation as the world’s best football player.
The other $28 million earnings of the Portuguese football superstar came from his endorsements and commercial deals including a long-standing contract with Nike similar to what tennis superstars Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal got from the shoe and sports clothing company.
More earnings for Ronaldo
At 30 years old, Ronaldo is just two years into his five-year mega-deal with Real Madrid. While there have been rumors that teams in the English Premiere League are interested in acquiring him particularly his former team Manchester United, the only way he can opt out of his contract is for the interested team to pay Real Madrid a staggering $1.2 billion. That’s a lot of money to lose for any team.
Since his personal endorsements would likely continue as he continues to play football at a very high level, Ronaldo is expected to break into the elite list of athletes who have earned at least $100 million in a single year either this year or in 2016. If that happens, he will become only the third man to do it in all of sports history, next only to Mayweather and Tiger Woods.