Top 5 Highest Paid Athletes in the World

The star of Golf Tiger Woods is the sports highest earner with an annual income of two and a half times larger than his closest competitor. He was the world’s best-paid athlete last year.

Top 5 highest paid athletes are: 1. Tiger Woods 2. (Tie) Kobe Bryant 2. (Tie) Michael Jordan 2. (Tie) Kimi Raikkonen 5. David Beckham There is a tie among three competitors, so they all three stood at the 2nd position. The details of all top 5 highest athletes are as follows:

1. Tiger woods

The world’s top golfer made $110 million during the past one year. He is the best-paid sportsman for the last eight years. From 13-years of his professional golf career he has earned nearer about $900 million as prize money, appearance fees and endorsement. It is assumed that he will become the first athlete to earn $1 billion during a career. He would have earned even more this year but he had got severe knee injury for eight months, so his prize money and appearance fees were cut down.

2. Kobe Bryant

He stands at the 2nd position with his other two competitors Michael Jordan and Kimi Raikkonen and gets $45 million. He won his fourth NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers in June. He got $21 million salary through endorsement deals with Activision, Nike, Upper Deck and VitaminWater.

3. Kimi Raikkonen

He is also at the 2nd position and earns $45 million. He won the title in the car race in 2007. He disappointed in the world championship race in the last year. Ferrari accepted Raikkonen in September to a one-year contract extension keeping the Finn behind the wheel for Ferrari till the year 2010.

4. Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan is a retired player since six years. He is still the most famous athlete in the United States and standing at 2nd position with Bryant and Raikkonen and gets $45 million. Now he is approaching $1 billion in sales for Nike which turned him to come in the marketing field. He is known in the list of potential buyers for the Charlotte Bobcats and here he is head of basketball operations and a minority owner.

5. David Beckham

He stands at the 5th position and earns $42 million. He is not as good as other players in the game then also he is most famous, so the companies like Giorgio, Armani, Motorola and Adidas give him millions of dollars for his endorsement. He is planning to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy in July after the MLS season is half over. He played for AC Milan this year and spent 5 months for them.