Highest Paid Athletes

We all know athletes make insane amounts of money for what they do.  They are getting paid ridiculous amounts of money for doing something every little boy or girl hoped they could do for a living and most of us would probably do it for free.  Not only are they paid for the sport they play but some of these athletes are making double and triple what they make for their respective sport in advertisements.  Here is a list of the top 20 highest paid athletes in the world for the past 12 months.

 

 

 

#20 Dwayne Wade

$26.2 million - Basketball - Age: 29

#19 Dwight Howard

$27.6 million - Basketball - Age: 25

#18 Yao Ming

$27.7 million - Basketball - Age: 30

#17 Dale Earnhardt Jr.

$28.5 million - Racing - Age: 36

#16 Derek Jeter

$29 million - Baseball - Age: 36

#15 Lewis Hamilton

$30 million - Racing - Age: 29

#14 Tom Brady

$31 million - Football - Age: 33

#13 Valentino Rossi

$31 million - Racing - Age: 32

#12 Rafael Nadal

$31.5 million - Tennis - Age: 24

#11 Fernando Alonso

$32 million - Racing - Age: 29

#10 Lionel Messi

$32.3 million - Soccer - Age: 23

#9 Michael Schumacher

$34 million - Racing - Age: 42

#8 Alex Rodriguez

$35 million - Baseball - Age: 35

#7 Cristiano Ronaldo

$38 million - Soccer - Age: 26

#6 David Beckham

$40 million - Soccer - Age: 36

#5 Phil Mickelson

$46.5 million - Golf - Age: 40

#4 Roger Federer

$47 million - Tennis - Age: 29

#3 LeBron James

$48 million - Basketball - Age: 26

#2 Kobe Bryant$53 million - Basketball - Age: 32

#1 Tiger Woods

$75 million - Golf - Age: 35

 

No surprise here I guess.  I was really expecting Tiger to drop off this list because he hasn't played nearly as well as he is capable of and with the scandal he did lose Pepsi, AT&T along with a few other large sponsors.  Thanks to a couple small companies called Nike and EA Sports, Tiger has nothing to worry about when it comes to dollar signs.  Although, he may have some trouble in the relationship business.