According to Forbes statistics, Ronaldo is still the sports athlete with the “huge” income in the past 12 months.

As usual, the famous financial magazine Forbes has just published a list of athletes with the highest income in the past 12 months. According to this newspaper’s statistics, for the first time in history, there are 10 stars earning over 100 million USD/year and the total income of 10 athletes combined reaches 1.38 billion USD!

Among the 10 athletes mentioned above, there are 5 football players. This is also understandable when the Saudi Pro League does not have a ceiling salary limit. The highest-paid sports athlete in 2024 is none other than Cristiano Ronaldo.

Even though he is 39 years old, the Portuguese superstar still has a huge income of 260 million USD. Accordingly, CR7 received 200 million USD in salary and bonuses from Al Nassr and 60 million USD from advertising revenue and brand representation.

Of course, Ronaldo also did not disappoint the giants of Saudi Arabia. The Portuguese superstar is still playing extremely well, scoring 36 goals in just 32 appearances for Al Nassr this season, of which 33 goals came from the Saudi Pro League. This achievement will likely help CR7 get the title of “Top scorer” as he is 7 goals ahead of the second-best scorer in the tournament, Aleksandar Mitrovic.

While Al Nassr is extremely satisfied with what he has spent, two other Saudi Arabian giants, Al Ittihad and Al Hilal, are in a bitter situation. It seemed like Al Ittihad would “copy” Al Nassr’s successful formula when recruiting Benzema for 0 dong. They made the French striker the 8th highest-paid sports athlete in the past 12 months with 106 million USD (100 million USD in salary, 6 million USD from other sources).

However, Benzema cannot do like Ronaldo. The former Real star only had 9 goals in the Saudi Pro League. The French striker’s on-field performance is also often disappointing. Benzema was also reminded by Al Ittihad’s head coach about weight issues and attitude to training and competition.

Al Hilal was even more bitter when paying Neymar a salary of 80 million USD. In addition, the Brazilian striker also earned an additional 28 million USD from advertising sources, thereby ranking 7th in the list of 10 best-earning athletes. However, the former Barcelona and PSG star only played 5 matches and sat out the rest of the time due to injury.

Neymar’s former teammate Mbappe ranked 6th on this list with a total income of 110 million USD, of which salary is 90 million USD and 20 million USD comes from other sources of income. Meanwhile, superstar Lionel Messi ranks third on this list with 135 million USD. The Argentine striker only receives a salary of 65 million USD/season, but off-field contracts help Messi earn up to 70 million USD more.

The remaining names on this list are Jon Rahm (golf, $218 million), Lebron James (basketball, $128.2 million), Giannis Antetokounmpo (basketball, $111 million), Steph Curry (basketball, 102 million USD), and finally Lamar Jackson (football, 105 million USD).