10 American Richest Athletes

Tiger Woods adultery scandal paid off! Many big sponsors like AT&T, Accenture LLP, and Gatorade left him. Unfortunately, this was not yet moved him from the top of the American richest athletes list. However, he has a significant dropped income since my last post about World's Richest Athletes.

Recently, Sports Illustrated released a list of the 50 top-earning American athletes by salary, winnings, endorsements and appearance fees. They called their compilation list as "2010 Fortunate 50". These are the top 10 of U.S. richest athletes:

1. Tiger Woods/golf ($20,508,163 salary/winnings; $70,000,000 endorsements, $90,508,163 total)


2. Phil Mickelson/golf ($9,660,757; $52,000,000; $61,660,757)
3. Floyd Mayweather Jr./boxing ($60,000,000; $250,000; $60,250,000)
4. LeBron James/NBA basketball ($15,779,912; $30,000,000; $45,779,912)
5. Alex Rodriguez/MLB baseball ($33,000,000; $4,000,000; $37,000,000)
6. Shaquille O'Neal/NBA basketball ($21,000,000; $15,000,000; $36,000,000)
7. Kobe Bryant/NBA basketball ($23,034,375; $10,000,000; $33,034,375)
8. Derek Jeter/MLB baseball ($21,000,000; $10,000,000; $31,000,000)
9. Peyton Menning/NFL football ($15,800,000; $15,000,000; $30,800,000)
10. Dwayne Wade/NBA basketball ($15,779,912; $12,000,000; $27,779,912)

For the complete list of the fortunate 50, visit Sports Illustrated website.

Besides American richest athletes, SI also compiled the list of 20 world's richest athletes, as follow:


1. Roger Federer (Switzerland/tennis) $61,768,110


2. Lionel Messi (Argentina/soccer) $44,000,000
3. David Beckham (England/soccer) $40,500,000
4. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/soccer) $40,000,000
5. Manny Pacquiao (Philipphines/boxing) $38,000,000
6. Ichiro Suzuki (Japan/baseball) $37,000,000
7. Valentino Rossi (Italy/MotoGP racing) $35,000,000
8. Yao Ming (China/basketball) $34,378,325
9. Rafael Nadal (Spain/tennis) $27,466,515
10. Lewis Hamilton (England/F1 racing) $26,700,000

For the complete list of 20 world's reichest athletes, visit Sports Illustrated website.

From the list we can take a conclusion, although two golfers were at the top of the list, actually only those two that were in the list. In America, 15 fortunate athletes came from NFL, while 16 from NBA. From the world's list, football/soccer still dominated as world's no. 1 sport with 7 players on the top rank, although a tennis player, Roger Federer, was on the top place.

Apparently, the highest salary/winning prizes in sport still held by boxing, followed by soccer and racing. But famous figures from other sports can be on top list because their endorsements/marketing were high, because they are having a high-selling personality, both in good or bad terms.

One more thing, the only woman athlete in those list is Maria Sharapova (Russia/tennis) with annual income of $19,923,619, put her in 20th rank of world's richest.

Tiger Woods Trash Talks

After five months absent from golf course, Tiger Woods starts to get his magic touch back. On his 2010 debut in The Masters, he managed to finished in 4th position, scored 277 hits or 11 under par.

That can be consider as a good result, because it was only 1 hit lower than when Tiger Woods won The Masters in 2002 and 2005. In the last day, he even managed to scored five birdies in the last nine holes. Unfortunately, his competitors like the champion Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, and Anthony Kim are on fire at the moment.

But one thing to notice, Woods who stated will act different, didn't seem to changed at all. He still cursed and said dirty words when his shots gone wrong. On the third day, he get caught by TV microphone emotionally saying trash like "Tiger, you're suck!" or "Jesus Christ!" with high tone.

Tiger Woods in 2010 The Masters at Augusta. Photo from fOTOGLIF

When he first talked to the media after his scandals resurfaced, Woods made a promise that he will be more polite and patient in golf match. He won't act emotional or jumping around when he makes a good shot.


Jim Nantz of CBS TV commented on Tiger Woods behavior, "If I said what he said on the air, I would be fired. I read in the USA Today and it was called “mild language.” Someone on my broadcast dismissed it as him having a camera in his face. Well, guess what? Phil Mickelson had a camera in his face all week and did you even hear him come close to approaching that? He didn’t hit every shot the way he wanted. Have you ever heard Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus use that kind of language? What are the parameters between what’s right or wrong?"

I guess it's not that easy to change someone's bad habits.

10 World's Richest Athletes

This list was made based on those athlete's salary, winning prizes and other endorsements. It might not completely accurate because it's only an estimated value.

1. Tiger Woods (Sport: Pro Golf / Annual Income: $100 million)
Still in his early thirties, Tiger Woods made nearly $23 million on the golf course and brought in a whopping $105 million in endorsements giving him a total of $127,902,706 and the No. 1 ranking for the fifth straight year as richest athlete. He might lost that title this year, rumored after his adultery scandal was spread some sponsors are breaked up with him.


2. Phil Mickelson (Pro Golf / $62 million)
It's not entirely surprising that golf's probable No. 2 best player would appear on this list but it's surprising that he's landed at No. 2 overall with $9.3 million in winnings and a staggering $53 million in endorsements giving him a total of $62,373,685.

3. David Beckham (Soccer / $45 million)
Becks invaded America in 2008 greeted by much fanfare and a high contracts, but injuries kept him off the pitch for most of the MLS season. The bulk of Beckham’s income is derived from sponsors like Adidas , Motorola and PepsiCo. Now he is on loan to AC Milan to ensured a place in England team for 2010 World Cup.


4. Kimi Raikkonen (F1 Racing / $41 million)
Ferrari made Raikkonen the highest-paid driver in motor sports last year when they gave the Finn a 3-year deal. Raikkonen delivered last year when he clinched the Formula One championship earlier this month. After having a bad season last year, Raikkonen decided to temporarly retired from F1 and want to move to WRC.

5. LeBron James (NBA / $40 million)
A serious business entrepreneur off the basketball court, LeBron James' salary was $12,455,000 and he raked in another $28 million in endorsements landing him at No. 3 on the list of richest athletes with a combined total of $40,455,000.




6. Manny Pacquiao (Boxing / $40 million)
A little surprise that the biggest earning in boxing sport doesn't come from the Heavyweight division, and not from U.S boxer too. But Manny Pacquiao is now the best pound per pound boxer, and become the most wanted target by any challenger in the world.

7. Lionel Messi (Soccer / $39 million)
This 2009 FIFA World Player only playing for one team for his entire career, Barcelona. He is still 22-year-old, and we'll see if he can win the 2010 FIFA World Cup with Argentina, how much raise will he get?

8. Alex Rodriguez (MLB / $39 million)
Baseball's greatest player earned an incredible $29 million on the field this year while bringing in a relatively modest $6 million in endorsements, with a total income of $39 million.

9. Fernando Alonso (F1 Racing / $35 million)
Alonso was contracted by McLaren team for $40 million/year for the duration of 4 years (2007-2010). He moved to Renault in the end of 2007 season, opted his contract with McLaren. Former double world champion Fernando Alonso has taken a £4million pay cut to help his Renault team meet the cost of staying in Formula One. This year he's gonna race with Ferrari.

10. Valentino Rossi (MotoGP Racing / $35 million)
Rossi clears around $35 million a year. That includes team salary from Yamaha and all endorsements, mostly from Fiat and AGV helmet. He also won 2009 MotoGP world title and rumored gonna move to F1 when he finished his contract.


There are supposed to be Oscar De La Hoya and Michael Schumacher on that list, but because they're both retired from the field I decided not to include both of them, although Schumacher gonna be back to behind the wheel this year.


Don't forget to check the newest update of 10 American and World's Richest Athlete, compiled by Sports Illustrated magazine.