Ten years have passed since Cristiano Ronaldo first topped the Forbes list of the highest-paid athletes—a decade in which the Portuguese soccer superstar has jumped from Spain’s Real Madrid to Italy’s Juventus to England’s Manchester United and, finally, to Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr. Yet for all of those frequent flyer miles, the 41-year-old Ronaldo is right back where he started—atop the sports world’s earnings throne.

For the fourth year in a row, and the sixth time overall, Ronaldo leads the athlete income ranking, racking up an estimated $300 million over the past 12 months before taxes and agent fees. The total includes an estimated $235 million from his playing contract with Al-Nassr as well as $65 million from endorsements, appearances, licensing, memorabilia and other business endeavors.

While a forward who is rapidly closing in on 1,000 career goals is no doubt used to a big score—Ronaldo now matches Michael Jordan with his six stints atop the athlete earnings ranking and is surpassed only by Tiger Woods, who has led the list 11 times—his latest haul is historic. At $300 million, he ties boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s 2015 total for the largest that Forbes has measured since it began publishing the athletes ranking in 1990. (Of course, adjusting for inflation, Mayweather comes out ahead, at $427 million.)

By Brett Knight,

Assistant Managing Editor

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