 "Virat Kohli. Photo: PTI")
In the Forbes top 100 highest-paid athletes list, swashbuckling skipper Virat Kohli has jumped 30 places from last year’s 96th position and again become the only Indian, cricketer to feature in the list.
The 20-grand slam champion Roger Federer tops the list with $106.3 million earnings while Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo finds a second spot with $105 million earnings. Ronaldo is followed by arch-rival Lionel Messi ($104 million) and Brazilian Neymar ($95.5 million).
However, the Forbes also reported that due to coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic almost every sport has seen a dip in the players earnings with America Football being an exception.
Here is the sport-by-sport breakdown of players earnings:
| Sport | Cumulative earnings | Athletes in Top 100 | ||
| 2019 | 2020 | 2019 | 2020 | |
| Basketball | $1.3 billion | $1.2 billion | 35 | 35 |
| Football | $926 mn | $773 mn | 19 | 31 |
| Soccer | $607 mn | $613 mn | 12 | 14 |
| Tennis | $245 mn | $296 mn | 5 | 6 |
| Boxing/MMA | $278 mn | $236 mn | 6 | 5 |
| Golf | $215 mn | $183 mn | 5 | 4 |
| Racing | $95 mn | $119 mn | 2 | 3 |
| Baseball | $468 mn | $27 mn | 15 | 1 |
| Cricket | $26 mn | $26 mn | 1 | 1 |
| Source: Forbes.com | ||||
The figures released by Forbes this year include all prize money, salaries and bonuses earned between June 1, 2019, and June 1, 2020.
Distribution of Virat Kohli earnings:
- Salaries/Winnings: $2 million
- BCCI: Grade A+ category
Endorsements: $ 24 million
The Indian cricket team captain Kohli is one of the highest-paid celebrities in India with endorsements from brands like Audi, Colgate-Palmolive, Flipkart, Google, Hero Motocorp, Puma, Uber, Valvoline and more. According to Forbes, he earns a total of $24 million through endorsements only.
Kohli also has a social media following of 134 million on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram which helped him to find most lucrative brand endorsements in India and he do paid promotion through his personal social media accounts as well.
