Cristiano Ronaldo becomes first footballer to top Forbes list of highest-paid athletes

Cristiano Ronaldo has been listed as the highest-paid athlete in the world by  Forbes.

The Real Madrid star is the first footballer to ever top the annual list of the world's 100 highest-paid athletes, having earned $88m in the last 12 months
He earned $6.6m more than Barcelona's Lionel Messi, who is second with $81.4m

Full list below


Forbes top-earning athletes 2016

Name	Sport	Salary + endorsements ($m)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Por)	Football	88.0
Lionel Messi (Arg)	Football	81.4
LeBron James (USA)	Basketball	77.2
Roger Federer (Sui)	Tennis	67.8
Kevin Durant (USA)	Basketball	56.2
Novak Djokovic (Srb)	Tennis	55.8
Cam Newton (USA)	American football	53.1
Phil Mickelson (USA)	Golf	52.9
Jordan Spieth (USA)	Golf	52.8
Kobe Bryant (USA)	Basketball	50.0
Lewis Hamilton (Eng)	Formula One	46.0
Tiger Woods (USA)	Golf	45.3
Eli Manning (USA)	American football	45.0
Joe Flacco (USA)	American football	44.5
Tom Brady (USA)	American football	44.1
Floyd Mayweather (USA)	Boxing	44.0
Rory McIlroy (NIrl)	Golf	42.6
Russell Wilson (USA)	American football	41.8
Sebastian Vettel (Ger)	Formula One	41.0
Philip Rivers (USA)	American football	38.0