The economies of the World may be slumping, but the business of sports is still booming. The top leagues, teams and athletes will all still be pulling in plenty of money this year. From rich team contracts, to astronomical earnings, to lucrative endorsement deals. There will be lots of cash pouring into the bank accounts of the top athletes in sports. But which athletes are the richest? Which are the top earning athletes in the World today? CNNSI has recently released their 2009 list of the Fortunate 50, which is a list of the 50 top earning athletes in the United States. They also published their list of the top 20 earning International athletes. Below is a compilation of the two lists, so it is a list of the top 10 earning athletes in the World today.
Top Earning Athletes in World:
1. Tiger Woods ($99MM)
2. Phil Mickelson ($52MM)
3. David Beckham ($45MM)
4. Lebron James ($42MM)
5. Kimi Raikkonen ($40.1MM)
6. Manny Pacquiao ($40MM)
7. Lionel Messi ($39.9MM)
8. Alex Rodriguez ($39MM)
9. Fernando Alonso ($35MM)
9. Valentino Rossi ($35MM)
9. Shaquille O’Neal ($35MM)
10. Kevin Garnett ($34.7MM)
