Where Mohamed Salah ranks in Forbes Top 50 athletes rich list compared to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi

Mohamed Salah is one of only six football players to make the Forbes Top 50 athlete earners list for 2023

Dave Powell Chief Business of Football Writer

06:00, 21 May 2023

Mohamed Salah(Image: MB Media/Getty Images)

Mohamed Salah is one of only six football players to make the annual Forbes Top 50 list of the world’s highest paid athletes.

The Liverpool winger, who inked a new three-year deal last summer to make him the highest paid player in the Reds’ history, featured at number 28 on the Forbes list, ahead of newcomer to the top 50, Manchester City phenomenon Erling Haaland.

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For the past year, Egyptian international Salah earned $53m (£42.7m) from both his on and off-field earnings, which came in at $35m (£28.2m) and $18m (£14.5m) respectively, according to the figures provided by the renowned US finance magazine.

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Salah’s new deal at Anfield helped him increase his on-field earnings over the past two years by 54 per cent from £18.3m, with his endorsement deals seeing a 24 per cent increase when compared to 2021, according to Forbes’ insights.

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The Forbes methodology for working out the on-field athlete earnings figures include prize money, salaries and bonuses, while off-field earnings are accounted for through an estimate of sponsorship deals, appearance fees and memorabilia and licensing income for the 12 months leading to May 1, 2023, plus cash returns from any businesses in which the athlete has a significant interest.

Salah, as the most prominent Muslim athlete in world football, has enormous appeal globally. He has endorsement deals in place with the likes of Adidas, Pepsi, Vodafone, Uber and electronics company Oppo.

While only six football players make a list dominated by American sport, the top three remains occupied by Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, while Neymar Jnr is 12th on the list. Haaland sits at 32nd with £41.8m of combined annual earnings.

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Also featuring prominently on the list is basketball icon LeBron James, a minority partner in Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group who increased his stake in the company earlier this year having accreted his two per cent of the Reds into one per cent of FSG’s whole operation in March 2021.

James, 38, sits at fourth on the list, the highest non-football player, with a combined earnings for 2023 of $119.5m (£96.2m).

James, who released a signature Nike/Reds merchandising line earlier this year, became a billionaire last year thanks to his off-court dealings such as his SpringHill Entertainment company, a firm that FSG has a stake in, as does Liverpool kit supplier Nike and 11 per cent stakeholder in FSG, RedBird Capital Partners.

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