Joshua, Antetokounmpo Make Forbes’ Highest-Paid Athletes

Joshua, Antetokounmpo Make Forbes’ Highest-Paid Athletes

Joshua and Giannis Antetokounmpo have been listed in the top 20 of Forbes’ latest list of the 100 highest-paid athletes in the world.

Antetokounmpo, who plays for Greece is 18th on the list with $47.6m in earnings from basketball and endorsements, while Joshua is 19th on the list with earnings worth $47m.

Roger Federer takes the top spot for the first time, with $106m of pre-tax earnings, edging past Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who have swapped the No. 1 spot in three of the past four years.

The two soccer icons earned a combined $209m during the past 12 months, a $28m drop from 2019, due to salary reductions at many European soccer clubs when league play was halted in March.

The 100 highest-paid athletes earned a combined $3.6bn this year, which is 9 percent below 2019 and the first decline since 2016, when boxers Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao skewed the results with a $400m payout from their May 2015 “Fight of the Century” pay-per-view bout.

Athletes from 21 countries and 10 sports make the final cut this year, as do two women — Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams – the first time more than one woman has made the ranks since 2016 when Williams appeared with Maria Sharapova.

Osaka, who earned $3.4m in tournament pay, is another dream endorser, collecting $34m from brands including Nike, Nissan Motor and Procter & Gamble. No female athlete from any other sport besides tennis has ever made this elite rank.