Messi outclass Rival Ronaldo in Forbes top 100 highest paid athletes List 2019.

Argentina and Barca Star Lionel Messi was named the world’s highest-paid athlete for the first time ahead of his rival Portugal, Juventus Forward Cristino Ronaldo with $127 million in total earnings in the most recent published list of Forbes annual ranking of the World’s 100 Highest-Paid athletes,

Messi beats Boxer Floyd Mayweather, who had the Top highest paid athlete in 2018, and also was the top for 4th times in seven years.

Juventus's Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo is second on $109m (£85.6m) with Paris St-Germain's Brazil forward Neymar with $105m (£82.5m) on third in the list of Forbes annual ranking of the World’s 100 Highest-Paid athletes.

The Top 100 Forbes list includes athletes from 25 countries and their $4bn (£3,1bn) combined earnings are up 5% from the previous year when Mayweather was first with $285m (£224m).

It is also the first time that footballers have ranked as the top three earners in sports.

The NBA accounted for the most athletes with 35, with LA Lakers' LeBron James the sport's highest-paid athlete in eighth on $89m ahead of Golden State Warriors pair Stephen Curry (9th on $79.8m) and Kevin Durant (10th on $65.4m).

Manchester United's Paul Pogba is the highest earning Premier League player in 44th place with $33m (£25.9m).

The list of Top athletes consists of players from ten different sports. NBA stars lead with 35 basketball players among the top 100, down from 40 in 2018 World’s Highest-Paid athletes, headed by LeBron James (No. 8 with $89 million).
Football was the next most-represented sport with 19 players, followed by baseball with 15, and soccer with 12.

There are 25 different countries represented on this year’s World’s Highest-Paid Athletes list 2019, up from 22 in 2018.
Americans dominate in the list with 62 athletes thanks to the sky-high salaries in the major sports leagues.
The U.K. has five athletes, France and Spain have three, while Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Serbia, and Venezuela all have two.

Top 10 World’s Highest-Paid Athletes in 2019.

Rank	Athlete	Sport	Salary/Winnings ($mil)	Endorsements ($mil)	Total Earnings ($mil)
1	Lionel Messi	Soccer	92	35	127
2	Cristiano Ronaldo	Soccer	65	44	109
3	Neymar	Soccer	75	30	105
4	Canelo Alvarez	Boxing	92	2	94
5	Roger Federer	Tennis	7.4	86	93.4
6	Russell Wilson	Football	80.5	9	89.5
7	Aaron Rodgers	Football	80.3	9	89.3
8	LeBron James	Basketball	36	53	89
9	Stephen Curry	Basketball	37.8	42	79.8
10	Kevin Durant	Basketball	30.4	35	65.4