You have seen your favourite athletes giving their blood and sweat to reach the pinnacle of their sport. This relentless effort for excellence not only results in success in the game, but also sweetens the deal with mind numbing wealth.
From Basketball to Boxing, we have compiled a list of 10 highest paid athletes.
Kobe Bryant
LA Lakers professional basketball player has played for the team his entire career. Bryant is an 18 time All Star who makes $49.5 million annually.
Tiger Woods
The American golfer is among the most successful players of all times. He has been one of the highest paid athletes in the world for several years. Woods pockets $50.6 million a year.
Philip Mickelson
The American golfer has won 42 events on the PGA tour, including five major championships - three Masters titles (2004, 2006, 2010), a PGA Championship (2005), and an Open Championship (2013).
Mickelson is one of 16 golfers in the history of the sport to win at least three of the four professional majors. Mickelson makes $50.8 million annually.
Kevin Durant
American professional basketball player for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Durant has won an NBA Most Valuable Player Award, four NBA scoring titles, NBA Rookie of the Year Award, and an Olympic gold medal. He has also been selected to five All-NBA teams and seven All-Star teams. Durant gets paid $54.2 million annually.
LeBron James
The American professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers $64.8 million a year. The NBA star started at the small forward and power forward positions. James has won two NBA championships (2012, 2013), four NBA Most Valuable Player Awards (2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013), two NBA Finals MVP Awards (2012, 2013), two Olympic gold medals (2008, 2012), an NBA scoring title (2008), and the NBA Rookie of the Year Award (2004).
Roger Federer
The Swiss professional tennis player is currently ranked world No.3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). His accomplishments in professional tennis cause him to be regarded by many as the greatest tennis player of all times. Federer turned professional in 1998 and has been continuously ranked in the top 10 since October 2002.
The Swiss national gets paid $67 million a year.
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Lionel Messi
The Argentine footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club Barcelona and the Argentina national team makes a whopping $73.8 million a year.
Often considered the best player in the world and rated by many in the sport as the greatest of all time, Messi is the only football player in history to win the FIFA World Player of the Year/FIFA Ballon d'Or five times, four of which he won consecutively, and the first player to win three European Golden Shoes.
With Barcelona he has won seven La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions League titles, as well as three Copa del Rey titles.
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Cristiano Ronaldo
The Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Spanish club Real Madrid and the Portugal national team earns $79.6 million annually.
He is a forward and serves as captain for Portugal. By the age of 22, Ronaldo had received Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations. The following year, in 2008, he won his first Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards. He then won the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2013 and 2014. In September 2015, Ronaldo scored his 500th senior career goal for club and country.
Emmanuel Pacquiao
Filipino world champion professional boxer has an annual salary of $160 million a year. According to Forbes, he was the 2nd highest paid athlete in the world as of 2015.
He is the first and only eight-division world champion, in which he has won ten world titles, as well as the first to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes.
At 32 he was elected to the Philippine House of Representatives.
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Floyd Joy Mayweather
At the top of the list we have the American professional boxer for making $300 million annually. Mayweather is widely considered as the greatest boxer ever due to his is undefeated record as a professional.
The five-division world champion has won twelve world titles and the lineal championship in four different weight classes (twice in the welterweight division).
He is a two-time winner of the Ring magazine Fighter of the Year award (1998 and 2007), a three-time winner of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) Fighter of the Year award (2007, 2013 and 2015), and a six-time winner of the Best Fighter ESPY Award (2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2014).
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