Federer is world’s highest-paid athlete, Forbes declares

Roger Federer is the world’s highest-paid athlete for 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic knocked football’s Lionel Messi off top spot, according to the annual Forbes list released on Friday.

The Swiss tennis great, owner of a men’s record 20 Grand Slam singles titles, earned 106.3 million dollars in the last 12 months, including 100 million dollars via endorsements.

This helped him to move up four places and become the first player from his sport to top the list.

Roger Federer won the Swiss Indoors at Basel for the 10th time in his career last year, demolishing young Australian Alex De Minaur 6-2, 6-2 to secure victory at his home-town tournament.

At 38, Federer won his 103rd trophy and his fourth of the season after Dubai, Miami and Halle.

Football players Cristiano Ronaldo (105 million dollars), Messi (104 million dollars) and Neymar (95.5 million dollars) and American basketball player LeBron James (88.2 million dollars) rounded out the top five.

“The coronavirus pandemic triggered salary cuts for football stars Messi and Ronaldo. It cleared the way for a tennis player to rank as the world’s highest-paid athlete for the first time,” said Kurt Badenhausen, senior editor at Forbes.

“Roger Federer is the perfect pitchman for companies, resulting in an unparalleled endorsement portfolio of blue-chip brands worth 100 million dollars a year for the tennis great.”

Japan’s Naomi Osaka (37.4 million dollars), who was ranked 29th on the list, surpassed fellow tennis player Serena Williams (36 million dollars) as the world’s highest-earning female athlete.

Osaka and Williams were the only women on the list.

Basketball players led all sports with 35 players among the top 100.

American football occupied 31 spots, none higher than six-times Super Bowl champion Tom Brady (45 million dollars) who was ranked 25th.

Football was the next most represented sport with 14 players, followed by tennis (six), boxing and mixed marital arts (five), golf (four), motor racing (three), and baseball and cricket with one each.