It’s certainly good to be Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah right now as the plaudits just keep coming. Tuesday saw Forbes release their annual list of the world’s 100 highest paid athletes in the past year and Mo just made it, checking it at number #99.
With total earnings of $25.1 million ($16.1m from football, $9m from endorsements) he grabbed the penultimate spot, joining fellow Premier Leaguers Mesut Ozil of Arsenal (#57 with $30.2m), Alexis Sanchez (#53 with $30.8m) and Paul Pogba of Manchester United (#44 with $33m).
This past season saw Mo Salah earn a Champions League title with the Reds and a Premier League joint Golden Boot Award (with teammate Sadio Mane and Arsenal’s Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang).
In the previous season, his first with Liverpool, the Egyptian claimed the PFA Player of the Year award, in a campaign that saw him smash several scoring records.
Salah has a long way to go to crack the top ten of the Forbes list though, which looks like this:
1. Lionel Messi, soccer: $127m
2. Cristiano Ronaldo, soccer: $109m
3. Neymar, soccer: $105m
4. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, boxer: $94m
5. Roger Federer, tennis: $93.4m
6. Russell Wilson, football: $89.5m
7. Aaron Rodgers, football: $89.3m
8. LeBron James, basketball: $89m
9. Stephen Curry, basketball: $79.8m
10. Kevin Durant, basketball: $65.4m
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, also contributes to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.