The Top 9 Highest Earners in Sports

The advent of the salary cap ensures that under franchise models especially, there's always a limit to how much you can pay an athlete.

Indirectly, it results from a demand and supply equilibrium of the market but a salary cap ensures that there's a ceiling which can't be exceeded.

In professional football however, a player can earn as much as the market (or his employers) think he's worth.

I've looked at the main American sports as well as a few global ones. For individual sports based on prize money, I've simply considered the most recent highest earner (prize money unless contractual). All amounts are US Dollar equivalent and are annual amounts not representative of the entire contract.

Endorsements rightfully, have been completely ignored.

TENNIS- Roger Federer - $8,768,110

Last year, Federer ended his season with tournament winning of almost $9 million. With increased revenues and sponsorships, the ATP has witnessed significant increases in its prize money payouts.

In 2007, as a result of his US Open series bonus, Federer ended the year becoming the first tennis player to cross the $10 million mark. His prize money however, is only a fraction of his total earnings accounting for endorsements as well.

Currently, for the 2010 season, Rafael Nadal leads the race with $4,004,944 in prize money.

NHL - Vincent Lecavalier - $10,000,000

The Canadian Hockey center and captain for the Tampa Bay Lightning was drafted as the first pick in the 1998 draft where Lightning owner Art Williams dubbed him the next "Michael Jordan of Hockey".

Though Lecavalier never fully lived up to those lofty expectations, his career blossomed after he was stripped of captaincy and he played a key role in the Lightning's Stanley Cup triumph in 2003 over the Calgary Flames.

His career has been hampered with injury, the most recent being a season ending one to his wrist but Lecavalier still remains one of the NHL's elite players.

Following him, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin (both of the Pittsburgh Penguins) and Alexander Ovechkin (of the Washington Capitals) made $9 million.

GOLF - Tiger Woods - $10,508,163

Surprisingly, in spite of pulling out after his knee injury, Tiger Woods still ended 2009 leading the prize money list at $10.5 million. While golf's prize money generally tends to be far greater than that of tennis on an average, the top players generally earn similar amounts.

For 2010, Ernie Else is the present leader at $3,460,341

Interestingly enough, while Woods has crossed the $10 million mark thrice, he has not yet surpassed Vijay Singh's 2004 total of $10,905,166!

CRICKET (IPL) - Kevin Pietersen - $13,433,333

Though the Indian Premier League is only a six week long competition, its player salaries have been stratospheric especially when compared to average match-fee salaries for cricketers.

The Bangalore Royal Challengers snapped up England's Kevin Pietersen for $1,550,000 for one-and-a-half month's work. On a prorated basis, this amounts to an annual hypothetic payout of almost $13.5 million. In fact, the average IPL player salary ranks only second worldwide to that of the NFL!

The previous record was held by Indian Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who was bought by the Chennai Super Kings for $1,500,000 or an annual prorated pay of $13 million

FOOTBALL- Cristiano Ronaldo - $16,261,759

It seems fair that the most expensive footballer ever should also be the most highly paid, but the Top 10 list of salaries throws up numerous surprises.

Firstly, though Ronaldo might be the most expensive, there is little doubt that Messi is the most valuable. Barcelona pays him about $13 million (placing him 3rd) while his under performing team mate Zlatan Ibrahimovic occupied the second spot with just under $15 million!

The rest of the Top 10 has Eto'o, Kaka, Adebayor, Benzema, Tevez, Terry and Lampard. The most underpaid player without a doubt is Manchester United's Wayne Rooney whose annual salary was just under $7.5 million! Go figure!

NBA - Tracy McGrady - $23,239,561

This might be the most unexpected and misinformed pay-scale (because T-Mac barely played the 2010 season) but the NBA salary cap rules ensure that to be the highest paid, you must not only be an elite player but have also spent a long time in the league.

T-Mac was drafted in 1997 so he's spent the minimum 10 years. The 10-year rule is the cutoff point at which a player can be played the maximum percentage of the overall cap.
However, the Knicks bought his contract and after this season when his contract expires, Kobe Bryant will rightfully be the highest paid player by the Lakers.

After McGrady, Bryant was also paid over $23 million while Jermain O'Neal was paid just under $23 million by the Miami Heat. Rounding up the Top Five were Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal.

Before T-Mac, the Boston Celtics paid Kevin Garnett over $24 million last year.

NFL - Philip Rivers - $25,556,630

Surprisingly, the 2004 pick of the New York Giants who was traded immediately to the San Diego Chargers for Eli Manning is $5 million ahead of the next highest paid footballer (Eli Manning).

Rivers boasts the second highest QB rating (95.8) in the history of the NFL (second only to Steve Young) but has still not tasted Super Bowl success.

The men who should be paid the most (and probably will be when the new contracts are handed out) are Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Peyton was paid $14 million while Brady about $8 million.

Incidentally, with endorsements, Peyton earns about $28 million which is more than any other NFL player

MLB - Alex Rodriguez - $33,000,000

The biggest baseball contracts are generally awarded to the best and most valuable players. Thus, it's no surprise that A-Rod's mammoth contract sees the New York Yankees paying him $33 million for the year!

In fact, the next three highest paid MLB stars are all from the Yankees. CC Sabathia ($24,285,714), Derek Jeter ($22,600,000) and Mark Texeira ($20,625,000) together ensure that the Yankees have a humongous payroll that can only be satisfied by winning another World Series.

Other players in the Top 10 hovering around the $20 million mark include the Mets' Johan Santana, the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera, the Mets' Carlos Beltran and the Phillies' Ryan Howard

FORMULA ONE - Kimi Raikkonen - $45,000,000

When the 2009 F1 Driver salaries were released, it created widespread discussion and arguments as a result of its skewness. While the bottom four drivers were paid nothing, the gap between each driver widened dramatically as one progressed to the top.

Although Raikkonen isn't racing this season, his 2009 salary was a massive $45 million(!!) which propelled him to second on the all-time athlete's earnings list behind Tiger Woods for 2009.

After Kimi, Mclaren paid Hamilton $18 million while Alonso received $15 million. Further down the list, Rosberg and Massa were paid $8.5 million each while Trulli, Webber, Vettel and Button hovered around the $6 million mark.

The End

So who deserves all the money, who doesn't?

Which sport does, which sport doesn't?

Comments? Feedback? Thanks for the read. Cheers!