Forbes’ highest-paid celebs list: Federer, Ronaldo, Messi in Top 5

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MUMBAI: Forbes has released "The Celebrity 100" - its 2020 list of highest-paid celebrities. No prizes for guessing that figuring in it are usual suspects Roger Federer, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

In sports, Federer (No. 3, $106.3 million) is the first tennis player to earn the top spot among athletes on the list, while Ronaldo (No. 4, $105 million) became the first team player to earn $1 billion during his career. Naomi Osaka set her own record at No. 90, bringing in $37 million income, the most money any female athlete has ever made in a single year.

The list is topped by Kylie Jenner and Kanye West​, who brought in $590 million and $170 million, respectively. West collected most of his ​earnings from his Yeezy sneakers deal with adidas, while Jenner’s payday came from selling a 51% stake ​in her cosmetics firm to Coty in January.  

With a total of $106.3 million, thanks to the best endorsement portfolio in sports with brands like Uniqlo, Credit Suisse and Mercedes-Benz among others, the money kept rolling in for Federer, even though the Swiss maestro was off the court for pretty much the whole year.

Coming in just behind Ronaldo was his legendary rival Messi. 

The Argentina and Barcelona captain finished the year with earnings of $104 million and fifth in the overall list of highest-paid celebrities. The lion's share of Messi’s earnings come from adidas, MasterCard and PepsiCo.

In seventh place is another football star. Paris Saint-Germain's Neymar clocked $95.5 million. The Brazilian forward is on a five-year contract with the French club through June 2022 worth $350 million in salary.

The other sportspersons who made it to the Top 25 in the list are NBA basketball all stars LeBron 'King' James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durrant, with annual incomes of $88.2 million, $74.5 million and $63.9 million respectively.

A notable name who just missed making it to the Top 25 is golfing great Tiger Woods - at 28th with $62.3 million.