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Two Footballers Among World's Highest Paid Athletes

Two Footballers Among World's Highest Paid Athletes

Two footballers were named among the world's 10 highest paid athletes on Forbes' latest rich list.

Click through the gallery if you are keen to see the world's 10 highest paid athletes in 2017.

Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo replaced boxer Floyd Mayweather as the highest paid athlete in 2016, and retained his top spot in 2017 as well.

The Portuguese earned $58 million (R745 million) from Los Blancos in salary and bonus payments, plus another $35 million (R450 million) from endorsement deals with Nike, Tag Heuer and Herbalife, among others.

Ronaldo is followed by basketballer LeBron James, who replaced Lionel Messi as the second highest paid athlete. The Cleveland Cavaliers superstar bumped up his income from $77.2 million (R991 million) in 2016 to $86.2 million (R1.1 billion) in 2017.

Meanwhile, Messi's overall income slightly decreased from $81.4 million (R1.05 billion) to $80 million (R1.03 billion). The Argentine made $53 million (R680 million) from his FC Barcelona salary and bonuses, plus another $27 million (R347 million) from endorsement deals.

Ronaldo and Messi are the only two footballers among the 10 highest paid athletes in the world, with the rest of the spots being filled by four basketball stars, one tennis player, one American football player, one golfer and one Formula One driver.

Neymar, in 18th position with $37 million (R475 million), and Gareth Bale, in 24th spot with $34 million (R437 million), are the only other footballers among the 25 best earning athletes in 2017.

Read: UEFA Announced UCL Squad Of The Season, Snub Neymar

Note: Forbes''figures include salaries, prize money and bonuses earned between 1 June 2016 and 1 June 2017. Endorsement incomes are an estimate of sponsorships, appearance fees and licensing incomes for the same 12-month period based on conversations with dozens of industry insiders. Forbes did not deduct taxes or agents' fees, and did not include investment income.

Do you think Ronaldo deserves to be the highest paid athlete in the world? Have your say in the comments section below.

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