Ronaldo, Messi, LeBron top richest athletes list

Cristiano Ronaldo became the first athlete from a team sport in almost 20 years to top the Forbes annual list of the World’s Highest Paid Athletes on Wednesday.

The financial magazine calculated the earnings figures include all salaries, prize-winnings and bonuses earned by active athletes between June 1, 2015, and June 1, 2016.

The top 100 athletes earned a total of $3.15 billion over the last 12 months, a slight decrease from last year’s earnings of $3.2 billion, which received a boost from the historic $460 million earned by boxers Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, who topped last year’s list.

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, with earnings of $88 million ($56 million salary, $32 million endorsements), takes the top spot for the first time, which is also the first time for a soccer player. This is the first time since 2000 that someone besides Mayweather or Tiger Woods has held the top spot.

The three-time world player of the year’s most significant rival, Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi, is second on the list with earnings of $81.4 million last year. Basketball superstar LeBron James rounded out the top-three with $77.2 million.

Tennis legend Roger Federer, despite a dip in performance due to injury, remains the king of endorsements raking in over $60 million in deals alone compared to this winnings of $7.8 million on the tennis court.

The list of elite athletes consists of players from 10 different sports. Baseball with 26 players, basketball with 18, football with 21 and soccer with 12 dominate the list. There are no hockey players on the list for a fifth straight year.

There are 23 countries represented on the Highest-Paid Athletes list, with Americans (65) the most prevalent thanks to soaring salaries in baseball, basketball and football. Five Brits landed in the top 100, led by F1 driver Lewis Hamilton at No. 11 with $46 million. Three athletes each made the cut from Argentina, Germany and the Dominican Republic.

Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who ranked No. 11 in 2015, is the biggest drop-off in 2016. Big Ben was listed at $48.9 million last year, thanks to his March 2015 contract extension that included a $31 million signing bonus.

The biggest gainer this year is PGA professional golfer Jordan Spieth, who moved up from No. 85 to No. 9, thanks to his $10 million FedEx Cup payday, new endorsements, rich appearance fees and sponsor bonuses from winning two major tournaments.

Once again the only women on the list were tennis stars Serena Williams (No. 40) with $28.9 million and Maria Sharapova (No.88) with $21.9 million.