The 20 highest-earning International athletes
 

2011 Fortunate 50 - SI.com

Roger still rules. The alltime leader in Grand Slam titles may not have won a major in more than a year, but the Swiss dominator still earns the most money out of the top 20 non-American athletes in the world. Federer's enormous endorsement portfolio puts him at No. 1, but barely a quarter-million more than No. 2 Manny Pacquiao. The Filipino boxer and congressman earned more than $50 million for two bouts over the past 12 months.

The average earnings of the International 20 hold steady at around $31 million, thanks to the strengthened power of European currencies, and buoyed by increasing earnings for global soccer stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and enormous payouts for top Formula 1 drivers like Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

In all, this year's list features eight soccer players, four motor-sports stars, three NBA players, two tennis players, two baseball players and one boxer. As always, our list includes salary, bonuses, endorsement income and appearance fees.

1 Roger Federer
Tennis
Switzerland
Last Year's Rank: 1
$52,781,940

2 Manny Pacquiao
Boxing
Philippines
Last Year's Rank: 5
$52,500,000

3 Fernando Alonso
Auto racing
Spain
Last Year's Rank: 17
$45,000,000

4 Lionel Messi
FC Barcelona (soccer)
Argentina
Last Year's Rank: 2
$43,800,000

5 Cristiano Ronaldo
Real Madrid (soccer)
Portugal
Last Year's Rank: 4
$38,800,000

6 Yao Ming
Houston Rockets (NBA)
China
Last Year's Rank: 8
$35,686,100

7 Rafael Nadal
Tennis
Spain
Last Year's Rank: 9
$31,506,278

8 Valentino Rossi
Motor sports
Italy
Last Year's Rank: 7
$30,000,000

9 Wayne Rooney
Manchester United (soccer)
Great Britain
Last Year's Rank: NR
$29,200,000

10 Kaká
Real Madrid (soccer)
Brazil
Last Year's Rank: 11
$27,300,000

11 David Beckham
LA Galaxy (MLS)
Great Britain
Last Year's Rank: 3
$26,800,000

12 Ronaldinho
Flamengo (soccer)
Brazil
Last Year's Rank: 16
$25,800,000

T-13Ichiro Suzuki
Seattle Mariners (MLB)
Japan
Last Year's Rank: 6
$24,000,000

T-13Lewis Hamilton
Auto racing
Great Britain
Last Year's Rank: 10
$24,000,000

15 Carlos Tévez
Manchester City (soccer)
Argentina
Last Year's Rank: 18
$21,700,000

16 Dirk Nowitzki
Dallas Mavericks (NBA)
Germany
Last Year's Rank: 13
$21,278,618

17 Pau Gasol
Los Angeles Lakers (NBA)
Spain
Last Year's Rank: NR
$20,822,187

18 Miguel Cabrera
Detroit Tigers (MLB)
Venezuela
Last Year's Rank: 19
$20,250,000

19 Frank Lampard
Chelsea (soccer)
Great Britain
Last Year's Rank: NR
$20,100,000

20 Michael Schumacher
Auto racing
Germany
Last Year's Rank: NR
$20,000,000

Umm, WTF? Pau made the list, but no Kobe? I'm suspicious of this list...lots of big names I expected on it that I don't see...

International. Ie not USA.

International athletes.

Must be on your block list :lol:

Yao Ming number 6, he hasn't planned for two years. I'm surprised Lewis Hamilton only made $24M, sounds kinda low.

Alonso needs to step it up :mad:

never would have guessed Messi makes 10 mil more that Ronaldo

likewise

glad to see roger in number 1 :)

I'm a big fan of Miguel Cabrera so I'm glad he's on the list.