Jordan’s No. 1 Athlete’s Earnings Rankings, Pele Sends Encouragement to Federer
Recently, the American golf media, Golf Digest, has compiled and announced the income rankings of past sports players.
In this ranking, which was announced up to 10th, there were active players, but there were also many retired ‘legends’ who dominated the times.
1st place was “Basketball Emperor” Michael Jordan (59, USA), who earned $2.62 billion (regarding 3.65 trillion won).
In addition to Jordan, four other people who received the title of ’emperor’ in their sport during active service in the top 10 were Tiger Woods (47, USA), Michael Schumacher (53, Germany), and Roger Federer (41, Switzerland).
Woods is in second place with $2.11 billion, Schumacher is in ninth with $1.13 billion, and Federer is in 10th with $1.12 billion.
In fact, receiving the title of ’emperor’ is somewhat subjective because there are no set qualifications.
However, many people agree with the title of ‘Emperor’ only when they have excellent performance, a pioneering position to lead the event, the preference of fans who transcend sports, and social symbolism.
Although he did not make it into the top 10 income rankings due to different times of active duty, Pele (82, Brazil), who is called the ‘soccer emperor’, deserves to be classified as a ‘global sports emperor’.
As ‘tennis emperor’ Federer announced his retirement at the end of the Laver Cup at the end of this month, only ‘golf emperor’ Woods remains active.
However, it is another characteristic of ‘Emperor’ that even following retirement, he constantly appears in the main news and draws the attention of fans to every move.
The day Federer announced his intention to retire, the jersey shirt that Jordan wore in the first game of the 1998 NBA championship was auctioned off at Sotheby’s for $10.1 million, or 14.1 billion won in Korean currency, making it a topic of discussion.
1998 was the last time Jordan won the NBA championship with the Chicago Bulls.
Jordan, who is currently the owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, is constantly becoming a newsmaker with Nike’s ‘Air Jordan’ series and the 2020 ‘global hit’ documentary ‘Last Dance’.
Not to mention the active duty Woods.
Woods, who suffered a severe leg injury in a car accident in February last year, made headlines every time he appeared in public.
Sports fans around the world cheered when he won the 2019 Masters following overcoming a sexual scandal in 2009 and subsequent major injuries such as back and knee.
Schumacher, the ‘Emperor of Formula One (F1)’, suffered a serious head injury while skiing in 2013 and fell unconscious.
Since then, he is receiving treatment at the hospital, but he has never returned to the F1 machine, and his post-accident appearance has never been released.
However, whenever a new record is released in F1, Schumacher’s record is mentioned so much that he plays a huge role in F1.
Pele, the ‘soccer emperor’, had great performances during his active career, but recently his predictions are often wrong, and he is a famous ‘celeb’ who is also known as the ‘curse of Pele’.
He received treatment for a colon tumor at the end of last year and was hospitalized early this year due to poor urethra.
However, in June, he received applause from fans for his elder-like actions, such as appealing to Russian President Vladimir Putin to ‘stop the war’.
“It’s hard to quit what you love, but we’ve been trying our best every moment, and your journey has had a huge impact on the world,” Federer said on social media on the same day. encouraged the emperor.
/yunhap news
