World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2019: Virat Kohli Sole Indian in Forbes List

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Indian skipper Virat Kohli has become the sole Indian athlete to be in the Forbes 2019 list of world's highest-paid athletes. Incidentally, according to Forbes, the cutoff to crack the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes was $25 million this year, compared with $17.3 million five years ago. While Virat Kohli, who was ranked 83rd on last year's list slipped down to the 100th spot, this is also the first year that footballers have clinched the top three spots since Forbes began tracking athlete earnings in 1990.

Here are the athletes who have made it to the top ten in Forbes’ list of highest-paid athletes. (Image: Instagram)

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Lionel Messi (Football): With total earnings of USD 127 million, the soccer star earns USD 92 million from salary and winnings and an additional USD 35m from endorsements. Notably, Lionel Messi was at number 2 position last year with USD 111 million in earnings. (Image: Instagram)

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Cristiano Ronaldo (Football): Ronaldo has total estimated earnings of $109m over the last 12 months with $65m coming from salary and winnings and $44 coming from endorsements. He climbed up from his last year's 3rd position with USD 108 million in earnings. (Image: Instagram)

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Neymar Jr (Football): Another soccer star, the Brazilian footballer Neymar was at the fifth position last year with USD 90 million in earnings. He managed to climb to number 3 with USD 75 million in salary and winnings and endorsements worth USD 30 million. His net worth is USD 105 million. (Image: Instagram)

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Canelo Alvarez (Boxing): The Mexican Boxer is at number four with a net worth of USD 94 million. He has a salary/ winnings of USD 92 million and endorsements worth USD 2 million. (Image: Instagram)

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Roger Federer (Tennis): Tennis great Roger Federer is fifth on the list with a whopping $86m coming from endorsements and $7.4m coming from salary and earnings. He climbed up from the number 7 spot. (Image: Instagram)

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Russell Wilson (American Football): With salary and winnings worth USD 80 million and endorsements worth USD 9 million, the American footballer holds the number six spot with USD 89.5 million in earnings. (Image: Instagram)

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Aaron Rodgers (American Football): Another American footballer, Rodgers has a net worth of USD 89.3 million that includes salary/ winnings of USD 80.3 million and endorsements worth USD 9 million. (Image: Instagram)

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Lebron James (Basketball): Lakers' basketball star James has a total earning of USD 89 million that includes USD 36 million in salary and winnings and USD 53 million in endorsements. (Image: Instagram)

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Stephen Curry (Basketball): Stephen Curry who was in number 8 last year has slipped a spot to 9 with total earnings worth USD 79.8 million. This includes USD 37.8 million in salary/winnings and USD 42 million in endorsements. (Image: Instagram)

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Kevin Durant (Basketball): Rounding off the top 10 list is basketball star Kevin Durant with total earnings of USD 65.4 million that includes USD 30.4 million in salary and winnings and endorsements worth USD 35 million. (Image: Instagram)

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Golf legend Tiger Woods, F1 racer Lewis Hamilton, MMA fighter Conor McGregor who was at number 4 last year and Novak Djokovic are other big names in the top 25 highest paid athletes of 2019. (Images: Instagram)

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Virat Kohli: An Incredible Journey of a Stylish Cricketer

Sports | News18 | June 27, 2019, 5:48 pm

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Virat Kohli was born on November 5, 1988 to Prem Kohli, a lawyer and Saroj Kohli, a housewife in New Delhi. (Image: Getty Images)

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In his early days, Kohli trained under the guidance of coach Rajkumar Sharma, who helped hone his batting skills at a very tender age. (Image: Getty Images)

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Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi in a Ranji Trophy match against Tamil Nadu in November 2006. (Image: Getty Images)

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Virat Kohli rose to prominence after captaining the Indian team to victory in the U-19 ICC World Cup in 2008. (Image: Getty Images)

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Virat made his ODI debut for India in August 2008 and scored his maiden international century in his 13th innings, a knock of 107 against Sri Lanka in 2009. (Image: Getty Images)

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Kohli was part of the Indian team that won the 2011 ICC World Cup. He scored a century in India's opening match of the tournament against Bangladesh. (Image: Getty Images)

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Virat Kohli made his Test debut for India against West Indies at Kingston in Jamaica in June 2011. (Image: Reuters)

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Kohli scored his maiden Test century against Australia in Adelaide in January 2012. (Image: Reuters)

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Kohli was adjudged ICC's ODI Player of the year in 2012 and also made it to ICC's ODI team of the year in the years 2012, 2014 and 2016. (Image: Reuters)

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Virat Kohli was part of the Indian team that won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. (Image: Reuters)

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Virat Kohli was bestowed with the Arjuna Award in the year 2013. (Image: Getty Images)

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Kohli was the highest run-getter in the 2014 ICC WT20 with 319 runs, and also finished as the player of the tournament. India lost in the final to Sri Lanka. (Image: Reuters)

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Kohli was part of the Indian team that reached the semi-final of the 2015 ICC World Cup and the 2016 ICC WT20. (Image: Reuters)

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Kohli took over as India's Test captain in the year 2016 and also captained India to their first ever Test series win on Sri Lankan soil in over two decades the same year. (Image: Reuters)

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Kohli also captained India to a 3-0 home series win over the world's then top Test team South Africa in November 2015. (Image: Reuters)

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Kohli scored a record four centuries in the 2016 edition of the Indian Premier League and ended the season with 973 runs. He guided his team Royal Challengers Bangalore to the final of the tournament where they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad. (Image: Getty Images)

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Kohli scored double centuries in four consecutive Test series. His opponents included West Indies, New Zealand, England and Bangladesh. (Image: AP/PTI)

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In January 2017, Kohli succeeded MS Dhoni as India's captain in ODIs and T20Is, thus becoming the captain in all three formats. (Image: Getty Images)

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Kohli went past Sachin Tendulkar's record of most centuries in successful chases in ODI cricket in the year 2017. (Image: Reuters)

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Kohli went past Ricky Ponting's record of 30 ODI centuries in October 2017 and is now the second in the list of most ODI centuries scored by a batsman behind Sachin Tendulkar. (Image: Reuters)

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The Indian captain 'Virat Kohli' who has many batting record to his name, is now also the highest run scorer across all seasons of the IPL. (Image: AP)

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Kohli’s knock against Mumbai took him past his India teammate and Chennai Super Kings man Suresh Raina. Behind the duo is another Indian batsman – Rohit Sharma. (Image: AP)

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President Ram Nath Kovind confers Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award on cricketer Virat Kohli at the National Sports and Adventure Award 2018 function at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi. (Image: PTI)

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President Ram Nath Kovind presents Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award to Virat Kohli at the National Sports and Adventure Award 2018 function at Rashtrapti Bhawan in New Delhi on Sep 25, 2018. (Image: PTI)

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Virat Kohli becomes fastest ever batsmen to score 10000 in ODIs during the second one day international (ODI) cricket match between India and West Indies in Visakhapatnam. (Image: AFP)

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India's captain Virat Kohli raises his bat to celebrate scoring 10,000 runs in one-day internationals during the second one-day international cricket match between India and West Indies in Visakhapatnam. (Image: AP)

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Virat Kohli became the fastest player to reach 11000 one-day international runs as India face Pakistan in the 2019 ICC Cricket world Cup at Old Trafford stadium in Manchester. Kohli incidentally already holds the record for fastest 10000, 9000 and 8000 ODI runs. (Image: Reuters)

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Kohli become only the third Indian and ninth overall to score 11000 ODI runs. On reaching 11,000 runs, Kohli beat Sachin Tendulkar - who previously held the record at 276 innings. (Image: AP)

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India skipper Virat Kohli added another feather to his cap as he became the fastest batsman to score 20,000 international runs when he reached 37 against the West Indies during their World Cup tie at the Old Trafford on Thursday. He also registered 9,000 runs batting at the number three spot. Kohli had started the game on 19, 963 runs to his name and was just 37 runs short of the record that legendary Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar held along with West Indies great Brian Lara. (Image: AP)