The Forbes Highest Paid Female Athletes List of 2020
A couple of days back, American businesses magazine Forbes came out with their 2020 list of the highest paid female athletes around the world. It is dominated by tennis players where the top 9 are all female tennis professionals while only the 10th is a national soccer player.
The list, as can be imagined and guessed by her winning streaks over the past year, is led by Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who racked up a good $37.4 million in total earnings, just $3.4M of which comes from her prize money while the rest is from endorsement deals by giants like Procter & Gamble, All Nippon Airways, and Nissin, all of whom are Olympic sponsors who signed on with her when she chose to represent Japan instead of the USA for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. The sponsorship deals will go ahead with her into the 2021 Summer Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Serena Williams from America follows close behind with $36M in total earnings, $32M of which comes from endorsement deals alone from Nike, Procter & Gamble, Beats, and Gatorade. She, her husband Alexis Ohanian, and their 2-year-old Disney-loving daughter Olympia are all part of an investment group that got awarded with the new National Women’s Soccer League expansion team in LA the summer of 2020.
The third spot taken by Australian tennis player Ashleigh Barty is where the numbers drop significantly with her total earnings being calculated at $13.1M with only $3M of that coming from endorsements such as Flia, Head, rado, Jaguar, Esmi, Banana Boat, and Vegemite.
Romanian tennis pro Simona Halep stands at the fourth spot with $10.9M in totals and $4M in endorsements through Nike, Hublot, Wilson, and Avon alongside other native Romanian sponsoring brands.
Bianca Andreescu from Canada takes the 5th spot with her $8.9M total earnings and $4M endorsements from brands including Nike, Rolex, Royale paper company, Gatorade, and Sleep Country mattresses.
The rest of the 5 ranking 6th to 10th include Spanish-Venezuelan player Garbiñe Muguruza with totals of $6.6M at 6th, Ukrainian Elina Svitolina at 7th with $6.4M, American Sofia Kenin at 8th with $5.8 in total earnings, German tennis pro Angelique Kerber at 9th with $5.3M, and the only female highest paid athlete not playing with a racket, American soccer player Alex Morgan at the 10th spot with her total earnings of $4.6M. Morgan, who gave birth to her first child in May 2020 also has an extended deal with Nike that guarantees an 18-month pay regardless of if she plays on the field or not in an historic maternity protective contract.
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