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Lionel Messi was the highest paid athlete in the world during the past year, Forbes magazine reported Tuesday in its list of annual rich sports.
The star of Barcelona and Argentina, Messi, has dethroned retired boxer Floyd Mayweather as the biggest source of income in the sports world.
Mayweather, who dominated the list in 2018 and four times in seven years, had only played in an exhibition match last December in Japan and did not feature in the top 100 composed of athletes from 10 different sports.
This allowed Messi to beat his longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo, the star of Juventus and Portugal, who finished second with a profit of 109 million dollars.
Neymar, the Brazilian striker Saint-Germain and Paris Saint-Germain, finished third in the top three places of the football players, ranking third with a profit of 105 million dollars.
Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, the Mexican middleweight boxing star, is ranked fourth on the list with $ 94 million.
Alvarez, who defeated Gennady Golovkin last September to become the unified middleweight champion, signed one of the best deals in the history of boxing last October: a five-year contract out of 11 fights with the DAZN broadcast network, worth $ 365 million.
Tennis legend Roger Federer was fifth on the list with a total profit of $ 93.4 million.
The bulk of Federer's revenue was earned through lucrative endorsement contracts, the Grand Slam singles champion having won 20 caps has cashed $ 86 million.
The stars of the NFL and the NBA complete the top 10 on the list. Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson is sixth at $ 89.5 million, just ahead of Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay Packers ($ 89.3 million).
The Los Angeles Lakers star, LeBron James, was the most deserving NBA player, with $ 89 million, while Stephen Curry of Golden State ranked ninth with $ 79.8 million.
Curry's teammate Warriors, Kevin Durant, finished 10th in the standings with $ 65.4 million.
Former world No. 1 golfer Tiger Woods is ranked 11th with $ 69.3 million, of which about $ 54 million in endorsements.
Tennis superstar Serena Williams was the only woman on the list, ranking 63rd with a profit of $ 29.2 million.
Basketball dominated all sports, with 35 NBA players among the top 100.
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