Back to the Rivalry … But Messi Earns More
American-centric? Not at all. The Forbes 2019 Celebrity list of the top 100 superstars is very international with nearly a third of the celebrities on this year’s list are from outside the U.S.
orbes today released its 2019 Celebrity 100 list, a ranking that spotlights the world’s highest-paid entertainers. See press release below.
Lionel Messi, the world’s
Tiger Wood (No.34), had a major comeback with this year after his win at The Masters, his first big title win in 11 years. Basketball stars LeBron James (No.17), Stephen Curry (No.23) and Kevin Durant (No. 32) are among the list of the 100 highest-paid celebrities on the ranking.
Here are the top soccer players on the Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list:
| Forbes Rank | – Super Star Soccer Player – | – Current Age – | Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| #4 | Lionel Messi | 32 | $127 M |
| #6 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 34 | $109 M |
| #7 | Neymar | 27 | $105 M |
The list has great details on each individual who made the cit. For example, Forbes cites the following on Lionel Messi:
- Since his Barcelona debut in 2003, Messi has played 687 matches for his club, scored 603 goals, and won 33 club titles, including 10 La Liga titles.
- His current Barcelona contract is through 2020-21 and pays him over $80 million annually. He also has a lifelong deal with Adidas.
- He has been awarded FIFA’s Player of the Year five times and won the European Golden Shoe for top scorer on the continent a record six times.
- In 2016, he was convicted of tax fraud in Spain for avoiding income tax between 2007 and 2009. His 21-month sentence was cut to a $250,000 fine.
Tax evasion seems to be a popular stat for these top celebrities. Ronaldo’s fun facts include his agreement to a $21 million fine for tax evasion … plus the fact that within 24 hours of release, Juventus sold 520,000 Ronaldo jerseys worth over $60 million.
The big question is where are the women players? Or is that back to the question of equal pay.
After a four-year hiatus, Kanye West returns to Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list and secures the No. 3 spot—surpassed only by his sister-in-law Kylie Jenner (No. 2) and Taylor Swift, who tops this year’s list.
This year’s Celebrity 100 includes six actors from the Marvel Universe, thanks to the success of Avengers: Endgame. While these stars can command millions upfront, the real money came in back-end points, as each got a piece of the film’s estimated $700 million profit. The listees are Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Bradley Cooper and Paul Rudd.
The world’s 100 highest-paid celebrities pulled in $6.3 billion pretax over the past 12 months. The cost of admission to the Celebrity 100 is a record $37.5 million, up 7% from a year ago. There are 16 newcomers to this year’s list, most of them of athletes, thanks to record-breaking contract deals that have been signed this year.
Forbes’ Celebrity 100 List Methodology:
The Forbes global Celebrity 100, edited by Zack O’Malley Greenburg and reported by Kurt Badenhausen, Madeline Berg, Dawn Chmielewski, Hayley Cuccinello, Monica Mercuri, Ariel Shapiro and Chloe Sorvino, ranks “front of the camera” stars around the globe using their pretax earnings from June 1, 2018 through June 1, 2019, before deducting fees for managers, lawyers and agents.
Forbes figures are based on numbers from Nielsen, Pollstar and IMDB, SoundScan, BookScan, ComScore and NPD, as well as interviews with industry experts and many of the stars themselves. The result is the definitive index of who’s making what in the global business of fame.
