The men in blue skipper Virat Kohli became the only sportsperson from this country to get featured among the World’s 100 most paid athletes in the latest Forbes richest list topped by the football legend Cristiano Ronaldo.
Kohli is on the 89th position in the Forbes list of the ‘World’s Highest Paid Athletes’ with a total income of $22 million (more than 141 crores) which include $3 million from his salaries and winning and the rest $19 million from his endorsement earnings.
Since breaking into the scene Kohli has been phenomenal with the bat breaking records with ease. He is often drawn a comparison with the master blaster Sachin Tendulkar. He was handed over the captaincy job in 2015 after MS Dhoni stepped down from the test captaincy making him one of the youngest captains.
Notably, the 28-year-old cricketer has earned almost $1 million as salary from his national duties. He is also among the highest paid cricketers in the Indian Premier League, the franchise based tournament. He received a whopping sum of $2.3 million from his team Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“The vast majority of his income, however, comes from one of the sports world”s most impressive sponsorships portfolios,” Forbes expressed.
In an astonishing way, Serena Williams becomes the only female athlete to feature on the Forbes list which again highlights the disparity in wage between male and female athletes. Serena was tied at 51 spot with earnings of $23 million.
Portuguese star Ronaldo tops the list with an income of $93 million which makes him the richest athlete for the second time in a row. He was followed by the basketball legend LeBron James who plays for Cleveland Cavaliers with an annual salary of $86.2 million. They were followed by the Argentine star Lionel Messi and tennis star Roger Federer in the third and fourth spot respectively.