Reaching the very top in any sport takes sacrifice, dedication, and natural talent. But the rewards can be immense. The very top-tier athletes can almost name their own salaries, but even these pale into insignificance compared with the money they can earn through sponsorship and endorsement deals. Here, we meet a handful of sports stars who don’t just know how to earn millions.
They have proved themselves equally adept at spending them!
Cristiano Ronaldo
One of the most successful footballers ever, Ronaldo’s eagerness to chase the big bucks has not always endeared him to fans. His net worth is estimated at almost $500 million and he surrounds himself with lavish luxury off the pitch. His biggest indulgence is in expensive cars, and he has at least 20 in his garage worth an estimated million in total.
These include an extremely limited edition Bugatti Centodieci, believed to have cost $8.5 million.
Ronaldo also owns eight properties including a New York condo in Trump Tower that cost $18 million and a seven-storey home in his native Madeira where his mother and brother currently reside. Two years ago, he spent $7 million on a hotel-size plot on the Portuguese Riviera, where he is rumoured to be constructing a retirement mansion for life after football.
Dan Bilzerian
For the majority, the lifestyle of professional poker players is not as glamorous as it sounds, a life of constant travel, cheap hotels, and taking no thrill from the win, just needing it to survive. But as in any discipline, those who reach the very top get to reap the rewards. Dan Bilzerian is one of poker’s most colorful characters. He’s not had the consistent success of, say, Daniel Negreanu or Phil Ivey, but he has been so successful in social media self-promotion, that his wealth has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Bilzerian is worth an estimated $200 million, and like Ronaldo, he loves to treat himself when it comes to vehicles. His fleet includes two Lamborghinis, two Rolls Royces, and an iconic 1965 Shelby Cobra that he’s not afraid to drive hard. If you want to follow in Dan’s footsteps, you can learn more about how to play poker for real money at Legal US Poker Sites.
Floyd Mayweather Jr
Anyone who nicknames themselves “Money” clearly knows a thing or two about living large. Floyd Mayweather earns – and spends – more in a year than most of us could imagine doing in a lifetime. Mayweather is famed for his impulse purchases.
When he famously collected around $275 million for knocking out Conor McGregor, he went out and bought a $25 million mansion in Beverley Hills and then spent $18 million on a watch – flaunting the timepiece and its price tag on Instagram as soon as the deal was done.
Mayweather is hugely proud of Air Mayweather, his blinged-out private jet, a Gulfstream G650 that cost around $60 million, on which he enjoys high-stakes poker games at 40,000 feet. He also purchased a second jet for $30 million for his following entourage. You simply can’t get more jet set than that!
