The only Indian Player is “Virat Kohli” the Skipper of Indian Cricket team has been featured in the 2019 list of Forbes under the World’s Highest Paid Athletes.
As the announcement of Forbes list, Kohli's estimated earning was $21 million from the endorsements and USD 4 million from his salary and winnings payment, in total count his salary as $25 million for the last 12 months. He was ranked 83rd last year, and in 2019 Kohli has climbed down to the 100th position and the last spot despite having an increase of $1 million from his endorsements.
The list of highest paid athletes is headed by the Barcelona and Argentina football superstar ‘Lionel Messi’. Messi has dethroned the retired boxer ‘Floyd Mayweather’ as the highest earner in the sports world and having overall earnings of $127 million via salary and all the endorsement deals. Now, he is ahead of his long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo, the Juventus and Portugal star who is at 2nd place with combined earnings of $109 million. Brazil and Paris Saint-Germain striker ‘Neymar’ completed a sweep of the top three positions by footballer placing at 3rd rank with combined earnings of $105 million.
Interestingly, it is the first time that footballers have clinched the top three spots since Forbes began tracking athlete earnings from 1990. Along with them, Golf star Tiger Woods, F1 great Lewis Hamilton, Novak Djokovic and Conor McGregor are among the other big names in the list at top 25 athletes. However, in Women’s the women's singles tennis player, Serena Williams is the only woman in the list at the 63rd spot. Whereas there were no women in Forbes 2018 list but Serena has come back into the top 100 following her return to the sport after the maternity break.
