FX.co ★ Not Ronaldo, not Messi: who became the most expensive athlete of the world

Floyd Mayweather

American boxer in a light-middleweight category

Fee: $285,000,000

Within 36 minutes of Mayweather's fight with Conor McGregor, the organizers earned more than $550 million, of which Floyd got $275 million. Advertising cooperation with Hublot and Tequila Avion helped the athlete earn another $10 million. Mayweather leads the rating for the fourth time in seven years.

Lionel Messi

Argentine footballer, a forward for FC Barcelona

Fee: $111,000,000

Messi moved the leader of last year and a sports fellow Cristiano Ronaldo, becoming the second in the rating and the highest paid football player. Having scored 45 goals in all tournaments, Messi finished the season of 2017/18 as the best goalscorer in the top five European leagues. His contract with Barcelona was extended until 2021. Besides, Messi has revenue from a lifelong deal with Adidas, proceeds of the advertising contracts with Gatorade, Pepsi, Ooredoo, Huawei, and Hawkers.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Portuguese footballer, a forward for Spanish club Real Madrid

Fee: $108,000,000

Since the beginning of this year, there are rumors that Portuguese is going to leave FC Real. Apparently, there are several reasons for this, and one of them is salary. Nevertheless, in the season of 2017/18, Ronaldo scored 44 goals in 43 games and added the fifth victory in the Champions League to his resume. In addition to the contract with Real Madrid, the lifelong deal with Nike costs more than $1 billion. In the partner portfolio of Cristiano, there are many other agreements - for example, with Herbalife, EA Sports, and American Tourister. Ronaldo remains the most popular athlete in the world with 322 million social media followers.

Conor McGregor

Irish fighter mixed martial artist

Fee: $99,000,000

The fight with Floyd Mayweather generated to the hero of MMA a profit of $85 million, which is five times more than his maximum earnings for previous fights. The fuss surrounding the athlete resulted in the advertising contracts with Burger King, Beats by Dre, Monster Energy, David August and others. In addition, he has a partnership agreement with the Wynn Las Vegas casino hotel, plus the Internet assets which also bring income.

Neymar

Brazilian football player, a forward for French club Paris Saint-Germain

Fee: $90,000,000

In August 2017, the Brazilian signed a five-year agreement with the French PSG totalling more than $600 million, of which $250 was given to FC Barca for the breach of the contract. The remaining sum will be paid to Neymar as a salary until June 2022. In addition, the superstar football player cooperates with global sponsors such as Nike, Red Bull, and Gillette.

LeBron James

American basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers as a small and power forward

Fee: $85,500,000

The four-time Most Valuable Player of the world's main basketball league brought his team to the NBA Finals for the eighth consecutive time (and in the ninth for career). In the season of 2017/2018, he broke Jordan's record, and also became the youngest player, who gained 30,000 points during his career. James succeeded beyond the court. He has a partnership with Nike, Coca-Cola (Sprite), Beats by Dre, Nike, Kia Motor, Intel, and Blaze Pizza. LeBron's named athletic shoes are the best-selling in the NBA. LeBron owns his production (SpringHill Entertainmen) and media company (Uninterrupted). The basketball player has 2% of the shares in Liverpool, which increased in value after the team had reached the Champions League final for the first time since 2007.

Roger Federer

Swiss tennis player, the World No. 1 singles spot

Fee: $77,200,000

In 2018, the legendary tennis player of all time briefly regained the status of the number one tennis player in the world, thus becoming the oldest age one in the ATP Ranking. His winnings for the whole career amounted to $116 million, but advertising revenue is higher. At the end of 2017, Federer's cooperation with Mercedes-Benz and Lindt was resumed, he entered into a partnership with the Barilla macaroni brand - the deal value is estimated at $40 million. The superstar's advertising portfolio includes the agreements with such brand companies as Nike, Wilson, Credit Suisse, Rolex, Moet & Chandon, etc. The Roger Charitable Foundation has collected more than $40 million, which will be spent for the education of African children.

Stephen Curry

American basketball player for the Golden State Warriors

Fee: $76,900,000

The five-year agreement of Curry with the Warriors guaranteed him $201 million and almost tripled his previous annual salary. Sponsorship deals with Under Armor, Chase, Vivo, eHi, Nissan/Infiniti, Brita, Bubble, and JBL bring him $42 million in revenue. In 2018, Sony Pictures announced the beginning of a long-term partnership with the basketball player.

Matt Ryan

A professional American football player, a quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons

Fee: $67,300,000

The first player of the NFL who receives an annual salary of $30 million thanks to the extension of the contract with Falcons until 2023. This deal set new league records in terms of the average salary ($30 million), the total amount of the contract ($150 million), guaranteed payments ($100 million), and the signature bonus ($46.5 million, with half postponed until April 2019).

Rain was won the prize of the most valuable player of the season, who brought his team to the Super Bowl.

Matthew Stafford

Professional American football player, a quarterback of the Detroit Lions

Fee: $59,500,000

Last summer, Stafford signed an excellent (for some time even record) contract with the Lions: in five years, he will receive $135 million. Stafford cooperates with Nike, PepsiCo, Fanatics, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Ford Motor, Panini, and St. Joe's Hospital.