This is team sports only, too. It'd be worse if we included golf, tennis, nascar, ect. Player salaries according to Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/athletes/list/ 1. Aaron Rogers $43 M NFL 2. Drew Brees $40 M NFL 3. Joe Flacco $39.9 M NFL 4. Tom Brady $31.3 M NFL 5. Alex Rodriguez $29.8 M MLB 6. Kobe Bryant $27.9 M NBA 7. Tony Romo $25.9 M NFL 8. Calvin Johnson $25.9 M NFL 9. Felix Hernandez $25.1 M MLB 10. Dwayne Bowe $24.5 M NFL 11. Johan Santana $24.5 M MLB 12. Ray Rice $24.2 M NFL 13. Josh Hamilton $24.2 M MLB 14. Prince Fielder $23.3 M MLB 15. Vincent Jackson $23.2 M NFL 16. CC Sabathia $23.1 M MLB 17. Joe Mauer $23 M MLB 18. Ronaldo $23 M La Liga 19. Cliff Lee $22.7 M MLB 20. Mark Teixeira $22.6 M MLB 21. Cole Hamels $22.5 M MLB 22. Matt Schaub $21.9 M NFL 23. Zack Grienke $21.7 M 24. Gilbert Arenas $21.5 M NBA 25. Clay Matthews $21.3 M NFL 26. Miguel Cabrera $21.5 M MLB 27. Adrian Gonzalez $21 M MLB 28. Vernon Wells $21 M MLB 29. Dirk Nowitzki $20.9 M NBA 30. Messi $20.3 M La Liga 31. Ryan Howard 20 M MLB 32. Amour'e Stoudamire $20 M NBA 33. Dwight Howard $19.5 M NBA 34. Carmelo Anthony $19.5 M NBA 35. Pau Gasol $19 M NBA 36. Wayne Rooney $18.1 M BPL 37. Peyton Manning $18 M NFL 38. Lebron James $17.8 M NBA 39. Kevin Durant $16.9 M NBA 40. Derrick Rose $16.4 M NBA 41. Eli Manning $15.15 M NFL Mind-boggling that Aaron Rogers is making over twice the salary of the second best paid athlete In "the most popular" sport in the world. Says something about the power MLS could have....
This apparently disagrees with you: http://espn.go.com/espn/notebook/_/id/10761701/25-highest-paid-athletes-worldwide-espn-magazine 1. Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Boxing) 2. Ronaldo 3. Messi 4. Aaron Rogers (NFL) 5. Ibrahimovic . . . 15. Rooney Also the top paying teams in the world: 1. LA Dodgers (MLB) 2. NY Yankees (MLB) 3. Man City 4. Barcelona 5. Real Madrid
Looks to me like a stupid ESPN writer confused total earnings with salary on the soccer players as those numbers reflect the Forbes soccer players total earnings while the NFL players are just at their contract salary rates. Its pretty common knowledge, I thought, that Messi was only making 20mil.... The rumors last month was that he was demanding $35 million. Why would he be demanding 15 million less than he's making now? lol Oooh maybe the tax situation is what's muddying the waters?
This website has Ronaldo's latest contract (the one he signed at the end of 2013) at €21 million(~$29 million) after taxes. http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3277...aldo-landed-record-breaking-105m?ICID=HP_BN_1 ESPN's numbers must be before taxes.
Well the NFL salaries you show are for the signing bonus + yearly salary. if you do it by year 110M / 5 = 22 Million per year. http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/green-bay-packers/aaron-rodgers/ The 43M for rodgers in the article most reflect his signing bonus 35M + His salary that year, if that is how they do it, then Rodgers will fall down the table since his 2014 salary is 10.9 Million and he will get 0 for signing bonus.
Also the list seem to be highest salary for 1 year, since Brees and Rodgers signed their contracts on different years, so if this was just a 2013 list, Brees would not make the cut since his bonus was on 2012, Brees salary in 2013 was "only" 10 Million. http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/new-orleans-saints/drew-brees/ If that is the case, we are missing Etto and Ashavin from the list, I believe they made more than Ronaldo and Messi.
Found Etos numbers http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2892...3m-pay-cut-etoo-accepted-to-seal-chelsea-move In todays conversion rates, 17M pounds = 28M USD.