'Money' Mayweather on top of all athletes

The biggest names in world sports are all highly paid for just being great at what they do and for standing beside a renowned club or franchise. But no matter how much money basketball or football stars get, no one can beat “Money”.

Floyd “Money” Mayweather jr. is the highest paid athlete in 2013 according to ESPN. The undefeated boxer manged to be on top of everybody else, once more, thanks to his victories over Robert Guerrero and Canelo Alvarez that brought him 73.5 million dollars.

Mayweather is followed by football stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Both recorded over 50 million dollar earning in the past year. The difference between the two arch-rivals playing for Real Madrid and FC Barcelona was a minimum 0.1 million dollars. Aaron Rodgers and Zlatan Ibrahimovic managed to found their way into the top five with 40 million dollars and 35 millions respectively.

The three European football stars were the only ones to reach top 25. Formula One drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton shared the 12th position with 27.5 million dollars each. The first and only NBA player in the top was Kobe Bryant. LA Lakers guard ended up on the eight position thanks to his 30.5 million dollar salary. However, the National Basketball Association is the highest payed league as a whole in the world.