Brand Virat Kohli is on the rise, and has been for sometime now. His popularity on the field has translated into him becoming one of the biggest brands in the country and in the world.The Forbes List of the highest paid athletes has been released and Virat Kohli has rightly occupied his spot in the top 100, but that is about it when it comes to Indian representation. No other Indian athlete has been able to find his/her way into the list.
Virat Kohli occupies the 89th spot on this elite list with a total earning of USD 22 million, 3 million of which include his match fees and 19 of which come from brand endorsements.
The Forbes magazine officials said that Kohli is India’s biggest sportsperson in terms of brand value and is Sachin Tendulkar’s natural heir. Forbes called Kohli the ‘Indian cricket phenom’ and felt that ever since he has taken the job of being the Indian captain, he has grown in stature.
Virat earned about 2.3 million dollars in salary during his stint with RCB in the IPL this season, rest of his match fees comes from playing for India.
“The vast majority of his income, however, comes from one of the sports world’s most impressive sponsorships portfolios,” Forbes said.
Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list with total earnings going upto 90 million dollars. He is closely followed by LeBron James(86 million dollars), Lionel Messi(80 million dollars) and Roger Federer(64 million dollars).
The list however is not very female friendly as it has only ONE female athlete in it. Serena Williams is that lone female representation, occupying the 51st spot.
With Indian stars dominating the World Badminton landscape, hopefully we can see a few of them making an appearance in this list next year.
