The American news site Sportico has released a list of the hundred highest-paid athletes in the calendar year 2024. Max Verstappen ranks eighteenth on this list, with an income of 76 million dollars (over 72 million euros). In 2023, the Dutch world champion was still in fifteenth place, even though he earned one million dollars less that year.
Just like in 2023, 2022, and 2021, Max Verstappen is the only Dutchman on the list of the sports industry-specialized American news site Sportico. In 2021, the then newly-crowned world champion entered the list at spot 95. The following year, he climbed to the thirtieth place, after which Verstappen stood above his rival Lewis Hamilton for the first time in 2023 as number fifteen.
The Brit can be found this year at spot 22, thus, like the Red Bull driver, dropping three places in the ranking. While Verstappen is ‘slightly’ ahead, Hamilton has to make do with 41.1 million dollars, significantly less than the fifty million he earned in 2023. In 2021, Sebastian Vettel’s first year at Aston Martin, the German split the two rivals on the list with an income of 27 million dollars, good for spot 78.
Peer Outperforms
This is the fourth annual list of Sportico’s highest-paid athletes worldwide. As in 2023, no women are included. Cristiano Ronaldo is the undisputed leader with an income of 260 million dollars. Lionel Messi, another football great, is not doing too badly at 37 years old, ranking fourth on the list. To break into the overall top ten, Max Verstappen will need to significantly increase his earnings. The income of number nine, his peer Kylian Mbappé, is estimated at 110 million dollars.
The estimates are based on earnings in the calendar year 2024. The first two Sportico rankings were based on earnings over 12 months between June 2020 and May 2021, and then June 2021 to May 2022. The salary and prize money include all bonuses paid out during that period, including payments for signing sessions and incentives.
