Cristiano Ronaldo again topped the list of the world’s highest-paid athletes, opens new tab with total income of $260 million in 2024, according to sports industry news site Sportico, but there were no women in the top 100.

The leading 100, dominated by players from soccer, the NBA, NFL, golf and boxing, earned an estimated $6.2 billion in total income last year. The figure includes $4.8 billion in salary and prize money, plus $1.4 billion in endorsements.

Former U.S. Open tennis champion Coco Gauff was the top-earning female athlete last year at $30.4 million, well short of Minnesota Vikings quarterback Daniel Jones who squeezed in at number 100 with a total income of $37.5 million.

Ronaldo’s lucrative contract with Saudi Arabian soccer team Al-Nassr ensured he retained the top spot for a second straight year after he moved to the Saudi Pro League in December 2022.

Sportico said the Portugal forward, who celebrated his 40th birthday last week, earned a hefty $215 million in wages while he also made $45 million in endorsements.

Ronaldo is so far ahead of the other athletes in the world that Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, who is second on the list, earned $153.8 million in comparison — more than $100 million short of the five-times Ballon d’Or winner.

British boxer Tyson Fury, who lost to Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk in a heavyweight clash in December, is third on the list at $147 million.

The top five are rounded out by Inter Miami’s Argentina captain Lionel Messi ($135 million) and Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James ($133.2 million) — the only 40-year-old currently playing in the NBA.

The top 100 is made up of athletes from eight sports and hailing from 27 countries.

While American Gauff, who is only 20, could climb up the list in the years to come, there have been other women athletes who would have cracked the list in the past.

Business magazine Forbes said Japan’s four-times Grand Slam tennis champion Naomi Osaka was the world’s highest-paid female athlete in 2022 after she pulled in $57.3 million in prize money and endorsements.

Retired tennis great Serena Williams, who won 23 singles majors, earned $41.8 million in 2021 according to Forbes. The American retired from the sport in 2022 at the U.S. Open.

-Reuters

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Cristiano Ronaldo approaches his 40th birthday with the same confidence and self-esteem as he has always boasted throughout his successful career.

Ronaldo, the former Real Madrid star who now plays in Saudi Arabia, will turn 40 on Wednesday and apparently has no doubt about who should be considered the best soccer player ever.

“I am the greatest scorer in history,” Ronaldo said in an interview with Spanish television channel La Sexta. “Although I am not left-footed, I am in the top 10 in history for goals scored with the left foot. These are numbers, I am the most complete player who has ever existed.

“I play well with my head, I take good free kicks, I am fast, I am strong, I jump… I have never seen anyone better than me.”

The Portugal star holds most scoring records in men’s international soccer, including most appearances with 217 and most goals with 135.

He had said it before, more than once, that he feels he will go out as the best ever in the history of soccer. Whenever he was asked about the discussion of who is better, him or Lionel Messi, he always praised the Argentine but ended siding with himself.

Ronaldo’s most recent comments prompted a few reactions in the soccer world.

“I have a lot of respect for Cristiano and I don’t have to analyze his opinions. It’s what he thinks. I have my own thoughts and it isn’t that,” said Javier Mascherano, a former teammate of Messi and his current coach at Inter Miami.

-AFP

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A real estate investment trust, launched by Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi, has made its Spanish market debut at 57.4 euros per share, giving it a market capitalisation of 223 million euros ($232.12 million).

Messi, the Inter Miami player and former FC Barcelona forward, is named as chairman of Edificio Rostower Socimi’s board in documents published by the Portfolio Stock Exchange, a European alternative market that is supervised by the Bank of Spain.

Edificio Rostower owns seven hotels in Spain and Andorra, three office spaces and five apartments in Spain, as well as apartments in London and Paris, the documents said.

Founded in 2013, the company posted a 1.7 million euro loss in 2023, according to records the Portfolio Stock Exchange published.

Edificio Rostower did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its stock market debut, which took place on Monday.

Most of the company’s investments are in the Spanish region of Catalonia, where Messi, 37, moved in 2000 when he was 13 years old to join FC Barcelona’s youth teams.

He lived there until 2021 when he unexpectedly left FC Barcelona to sign for Paris St Germain after the heavily indebted Catalan club said it could not afford to keep him because of La Liga’s financial fair play rules.

The eight-times Ballon d’Or winner has long said he plans to return to live in Barcelona with his wife and three children after he retires from soccer.

Messi’s wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, is the board’s vice-president. The other members of the board are Alfonso Nebot, who runs Messi’s family office, and Ramon Adell, who is a board member of Spanish energy company Naturgy (NTGY.MC), opens new tab.

-Reuters

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