LeBron James, Steph Curry and Cristiano Ronaldo Among World's Highest-Paid Athletes

You might be surprised by who didn't make the top five.

LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers handles the ball against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first quarter of Game Three of the First Round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Target Center on April 25, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota/Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors warms up before the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves during Round Two Game One of the 2025 NBA Playoffs on May 6, 2025 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota/Cristiano Ronaldo of Al Nassr reacts during the AFC Champions League Elite Semi Final between Al Nassr and Kawasaki Frontale at King Abdullah Sports City Hall Stadium on April 30, 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
David Berding/Getty Images/David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images/Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images

The world's 10 highest-earning sports stars have been released by Forbesand you might recognize some of the names.

In the report, published Thursday (May 15), Portuguese soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo was crowned the world's richest athlete earning an estimated $275 million. In addition to taking home roughly $225 million for his on-field talents, Ronaldo can credit $50 million to his investments in companies like Whomp and Bioniq, along with a massive social media following.

Since launching his YouTube channel in August, the athlete has reached 75 million subscribers. As announced in April, Ronaldo will soon be launching a film production studio with director Matthew Vaughn, a move which is poised to strengthen his money-making empire. The latest Forbes list marks Ronaldo's third consecutive time at number one; it's his fifth time being mentioned in the top 10.

Rounding out the top five athletes on the list are Stephen Curry ($156 million), Tyson Fury ($146 million), Dak Prescott ($137 million) and Lionel Messi ($135 million).

While Curry's the only NBA star to feature in the top five, LeBron James ($133.8 million) and Kevin Durant are not too far behind him at number six and 10 respectively.

Elsewhere in the top 10 are baseball phenoms Juan Soto ($114 million) at number seven and Shohei Ohtani ($102.5 million) at number nine, while French soccer veteran Karim Benzema sits at number eight with $104 million.

Names outside the top 10 include Oleksandr Usyk ($101 million), John Rahm ($100 million), Giannis Antetokounmpo ($94.4 million), Scottie Scheffler ($92.5 million), Deshaun Watson ($91.8 million), Kylian Mbappe ($90 million), Rory Mcilroy ($87.9 million), Patrick Mahomes ($86.8 million), Jordan Love ($83 million), and Jared Goff ($80.8 million).

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