Ten years have passed since Cristiano Ronaldo first topped the Forbes list of the highest-paid athletes—a decade in which the Portuguese soccer superstar has jumped from Spain’s Real Madrid to Italy’s Juventus to England’s Manchester United and, finally, to Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr. Yet for all of those frequent flyer miles, the 41-year-old Ronaldo is right back where he started—atop the sports world’s earnings throne.
For the fourth year in a row, and the sixth time overall, Ronaldo leads the athlete income ranking, racking up an estimated $300 million over the past 12 months before taxes and agent fees. The total includes an estimated $235 million from his playing contract with Al-Nassr as well as $65 million from endorsements, appearances, licensing, memorabilia and other business endeavors.
While a forward who is rapidly closing in on 1,000 career goals is no doubt used to a big score—Ronaldo now matches Michael Jordan with his six stints atop the athlete earnings ranking and is surpassed only by Tiger Woods, who has led the list 11 times—his latest haul is historic. At $300 million, he ties boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s 2015 total for the largest that Forbes has measured since it began publishing the athletes ranking in 1990. (Of course, adjusting for inflation, Mayweather comes out ahead, at $427 million.)
Relative to 2025, when he established a new high for a soccer player, Ronaldo is up $25 million, and he is joined this year by two other athletes who broke earnings records for their respective sports. Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton collected an estimated $100 million over the past 12 months—besting the Formula 1 mark he set in 2021 at $82 million while racing for Mercedes—and Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani made $127.6 million, retaking the MLB crown after a one-year reign by New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto’s $114 million from 2025.
World’s Highest-Paid Athletes 2026
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Throw in career-best totals from global household names such as boxer Canelo Álvarez (with an estimated $170 million), Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi ($140 million) and Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James ($137.8 million), and this year’s ten highest-paid athletes pocketed a combined $1.4 billion. The total represents a slight increase from 2025 and is more than double the $635 million of 2016, when Ronaldo first claimed the No. 1 spot with $88 million. Each of this year’s top ten also posted at least $100 million for the third year in a row.
Together, the top ten athletes brought in $902 million on the field, from their salaries, bonuses and prize money—down 2% from 2025’s $920 million and 8% from 2024’s record $978 million. But they made up the difference by raking in an estimated $513 million from their sponsorships and other business ventures, edging the high of $512 million set in 2021.
No one is doing better off the field than Ohtani, with his estimated $125 million. In the 36 years Forbes has tracked athlete earnings, MMA fighter Conor McGregor is the only sports star to surpass that figure while still active in their sport, reaching $158 million in 2021 thanks primarily to the sale of his Irish whiskey brand, Proper No. Twelve. Ohtani, by contrast, makes most of his money from lucrative partnerships, with Western brands including Fanatics, Hugo Boss and New Balance and companies in his native Japan such as FamilyMart convenience stores, Ito En tea and Seiko watches.
Ohtani also has the distinction of being, along with Spanish golfer Jon Rahm, one of two 31-year-olds among the ten highest-paid athletes—and, adding in Álvarez, one of only three who are 35 or younger. With Ronaldo, James and Hamilton, the top ten includes just as many 41-year-olds, and the average age of the list is 37, the oldest Forbes has recorded in the history of the ranking. That upward trend, from 35 in 2025 and 32 in 2024, stands in contrast with the full ranking of the 50 highest-paid athletes, where the average age has drifted down to 30 and more than half of the list makers are still in their 20s.
One other trend that bears monitoring is the flow of Saudi cash. Ronaldo’s on-field income has more than tripled since he left the English Premier League for the Saudi Pro League in 2023, and his league rival Karim Benzema—No. 8 on this year’s athlete earnings list at $104 million—also has a nine-figure salary. Meanwhile, Álvarez is midway through a four-fight deal with Turki Alalshikh, the head of Riyadh Season, that is reportedly worth as much as $400 million, and Rahm (No. 7, $107 million) has gotten his paychecks from the Saudi-backed LIV Golf, including an $18 million bonus for winning the tour’s 2025 individual championship.
However, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund said in April that it would cease funding LIV beyond this season, part of a broader pull-back on spending.
Still, that doesn’t mean that the gusher of Middle Eastern money is going to completely dry up. For instance, Messi has served as a tourism ambassador for Saudi Arabia, and Hamilton has promoted the Emirati telecommunications conglomerate e&. And Ronaldo can go back to his well for at least another season: He signed a new two-year contract with Al-Nassr last June.
The World’s 10 Highest-Paid Athletes 2026
#1. $300 million
Sport: Soccer | Age: 41 | Nationality: Portugal | On-Field: $235 million • Off-Field: $65 million
Mohammed Saad/Anadolu/Getty Images
Having accomplished just about all a person can do on the soccer pitch—except for winning the World Cup, which he will try to remedy with Portugal at this summer’s tournament—Ronaldo is beginning to train his gaze on the owner’s box after acquiring a 25% stake in UD Almería, a Spanish second-division club, in February. The deal carried additional intrigue because the team’s ownership group is led by the Saudi Media Company—perhaps a sign that the 41-year-old superstar was recommitting to staying in the Saudi Pro League after skipping two games the same month to express his displeasure with the management of Al-Nassr, including a quiet transfer window. Ronaldo, who has more than a billion social media followers, also has a deep stable of sponsors including Binance, Nike and Perplexity. One other longtime partner, Herbalife, announced in its fourth-quarter earnings call that Ronaldo had invested $7.5 million into its health tech subsidiary HBL Pro2col Software LLC; Herbalife’s shares jumped 18% the next day.
#2. $170 million
Sport: Boxing | Age: 35 | Nationality: Mexico | On-Field: $160 million • Off-Field: $10 million
Sarah Stier/Netflix/Getty Images
Álvarez began his mega-deal with the Saudis with a unanimous decision victory over William Scull in Riyadh last May, but his follow-up fight four months later in Las Vegas ended in an upset loss to Terence Crawford that dropped his record to 63-3-2. There was no such disappointment with the business around the bout: The announced attendance of 70,482 broke the record for crowd size at a boxing match in Nevada, and more than 41 million viewers watched the fight on Netflix, peaking at more than 24 million concurrent streams. Álvarez will be back on Netflix soon in a feature-length documentary, and the 35-year-old Mexican recently struck a production deal with Box to Box Films, the company behind the hit docuseries Formula 1: Drive to Survive. Álvarez has also built a business empire that includes gas stations, convenience stores and a canned cocktail brand called VMC.
#3. $140 million
Sport: Soccer | Age: 38 | Nationality: Argentina | On-Field: $70 million • Off-Field: $70 million
ndrawan Kumala/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Messi reached 100 combined goals and assists in his 64th regular-season MLS match this month—31 games faster than any player in league history—and his paychecks recognize his unique position in the sport. The MLS Players Association recently disclosed that the 38-year-old Argentine forward was receiving $28.3 million in guaranteed compensation this season, more than the entire payroll of 28 other teams. (His salary is further bolstered by revenue-sharing agreements with league partners Adidas and Apple TV, separate from his personal endorsement deals with brands including Mastercard, Michelob Ultra and new addition Duracell.) In October, Messi signed a contract extension to remain at Inter Miami through the end of the 2028 MLS season, but he has never abandoned Spain, where he spent the first 17 seasons of his first-team pro career. He recently bought Spanish fifth-division soccer club Cornellà and, through a real estate investment trust, purchased a long-shuttered building in Barcelona for about $13 million.
#4. $137.8 million
Sport: Basketball | Age: 41 | Nationality: U.S. | On-Field: $52.8 million • Off-Field: $85 million
Ethan Swope/Associated Press
In what is becoming an annual spring ritual, James is openly considering the possibility of retirement—“I don’t know what the future holds for me,” he said last week—but if the 41-year-old forward decides to return and extend his NBA records for seasons (23) and games played (1,622 in the regular season), he will become a free agent in July. A decade ago, James said it was his dream to own a franchise once his playing career had concluded, but these days, he is “not at all” interested in NBA ownership, he said in March. Perhaps that’s because James is already a partner in Fenway Sports Group, which controls MLB’s Boston Red Sox and the Premier League’s Liverpool, and he has a long list of investments in addition to endorsement deals with brands including DraftKings, Hennessy and Richard Mille. Most recently, James participated in a funding round that valued Whoop at $10.1 billion, and he also occupies his time as host of the podcast Mind The Game with fellow NBA great Steve Nash. Last year, the show struck a multiyear deal for distribution across several Amazon properties.
#5. $127.6 million
Sport: Baseball | Age: 31 | Nationality: Japan | On-Field: $2.6 million • Off-Field: $125 million
Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
The ten-year, $700 million contract Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in December 2023 defers the vast majority of the money to annual payments that begin in 2034, but in the meantime, the 31-year-old two-way star buttressed his $2 million salary last season with $40,000 from his participation in MLB’s All-Star Game and about $485,000 in postseason bonuses from the Dodgers’ run to a World Series title. Of course, that might as well be change in the couch cushions for Ohtani, who has more than 20 sponsors, including recent additions Grand Seiko, Japan Post Bank, Kirin supplements and Wacoal athletic wear. The three-time reigning MVP winner has also had MLB’s most popular jersey for three straight seasons.
#6. $124.7 million
Sport: Basketball | Age: 38 | Nationality: U.S. | On-Field: $59.7 million • Off-Field: $65 million
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
In his final season under contract with the Golden State Warriors, Curry is due to become the first NBA player to break the $60 million salary barrier in 2026-27, at $62.6 million. The big news around the 38-year-old point guard, however, has been from a terminated deal—his split with Under Armour in November. Curry, who still has partnerships with brands including Chase, Google and Rakuten, has had some fun with his sneaker free agency, wearing several other brands in games and auctioning off more than 70 pairs for charity. (He has pointedly not taken the court in Curry 13s, his final signature shoe produced by Under Armour, which dropped in February.) Curry, who had the NBA’s best-selling jersey this past season, also released a book titled Shot Ready in September and co-directed a documentary on Clarence B. Jones called The Baddest Speechwriter of All, which won the Sundance Film Festival’s Short Film Grand Jury Prize in January.
#7. $107 million
Sport: Golf | Age: 31 | Nationality: Spain | On-Field: $97 million • Off-Field: $10 million
Mike Egerton/PA Images/Getty Images
Rahm has said—not always convincingly—that he does not regret his 2023 decision to leave the PGA Tour for LIV, but the 31-year-old Spaniard is stuck waiting for a resolution to the league’s funding woes because he still has several years left on his contract, he said this month, adding, “I don’t see many ways out.” (On the other hand, if LIV collapses, Rahm may have a safe landing now that he has resolved a financial dispute with Europe’s DP World Tour.) Rahm, who endorses brands such as Callaway, Rolex and Santander Bank, is at least keeping an eye on the wellbeing of his fellow golfers. In March, after the United States attacked Iran, he reportedly hired a private jet to fly seven LIV players and a caddie out of the Middle East.
#8. $104 million
Sport: Soccer | Age: 38 | Nationality: France | On-Field: $100 million • Off-Field: $4 million
Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images
Benzema has spent three seasons in the Saudi Pro League but still made a move in the winter, refusing to play for Al‑Ittihad because of a contract dispute and transferring to Al-Hilal. The 38-year-old Frenchman scored a hat trick in his debut in February, and his new club then won the King’s Cup, a Saudi knockout tournament, before coming up just shy of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr in the league championship race. Off the field, Benzema has appeared in ads for Adidas and two Saudi fragrance brands, Assaf and Reef Perfumes, and he reportedly has an agreement to serve as an ambassador for his former club Real Madrid once he hangs up his cleats.
#9. $103.8 million
Sport: Basketball | Age: 37 | Nationality: U.S. | On-Field: $54.8 million • Off-Field: $49 million
Kenneth Richmond/Getty Images
By Forbes’ count, Durant has now crossed the $1 billion career earnings threshold, becoming only the eighth athlete to do so while still active in their sport (unadjusted for inflation). The 37-year-old forward joined the Houston Rockets in a trade in July and signed a two-year, $90 million contract extension in October, sacrificing about $30 million relative to his maximum salary across the deal but giving himself flexibility with a player option for 2027-28. Durant, who passed Michael Jordan for fifth on the NBA’s career scoring list in March, supplements his income with his media company Boardroom and investing firm 35V, as well as endorsements with brands including CeraVe, Dick’s Sporting Goods and FanDuel. He also appeared in the second season of Netflix’s Starting 5 and will be the subject of a forthcoming docuseries from the streamer and OBB Pictures.
#10. $100 million
Sport: Auto Racing | Age: 41 | Nationality: U.K. | On-Field: $70 million • Off-Field: $30 million
Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
Hamilton finished sixth in the Formula 1 standings last season in his first year with Ferrari—not up to the standards of a seven-time series champion—but business has never been better for the 41-year-old Englishman. In a sport where drivers are often unwilling or unable to seek out personal sponsorships because of their obligations to their teams and their teams’ partners, Hamilton laps the field commercially, working with brands such as Dior, Lululemon and Rimowa. He also served as a producer on the 2025 blockbuster movie F1 and has a web of businesses that include production company Dawn Apollo Films, clothing brand +44 and non-alcoholic agave spirit Almave. In June, he is set to begin opening trading card stores outside of North America through a partnership with Dave & Adam’s Card World.
METHODOLOGY
Information about the methodology Forbes uses to compile the list of the world’s highest-paid athletes—which captures income collected between May 1, 2025, and May 1, 2026—can be found here.
With additional reporting by Hank Tucker.
