Highest-Paying Sports Contracts by Annual Value
Key Findings
🏆
Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nassr, 2025-2027) leads in Average Pay per Year (US$) with 355,015,000 in 2026.
📊
Average Average Pay per Year (US$) in 2026: 109,153,892 · median: 66,400,000.
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Gap in 2026: Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nassr, 2025-2027) is 6.3× larger than Karl-Anthony Towns (Minnesota Timberwolves*, 2024-2028).
About This Dataset
Highest-Paying Sports Contracts by Annual Value
The same contracts divided by their length, which is the fairer comparison between a two-year deal and a fifteen-year one. Annual value is guaranteed pay only: endorsements, image rights and performance bonuses sit outside the contract and are often worth more than it.
Analysis
Cristiano Ronaldo earns $355,015,000 a year under his 2025-2027 deal at Al Nassr, 1.65 times the $214,534,727 of his own 2023-2025 contract. 6 of the 12 highest annual salaries are in basketball. 12 of them pay $50 million a year or more. The lowest on this chart still pays $56,000,000 a year.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- Wikipedia, List of largest sports contracts
- Coverage
- 12 entities · 2026 · 12 observations
- Measure
- Average Pay per Year (US$)
- Last updated
- 7 September 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
How the figures are calculated
- Values use the measure and unit named on this page. Consult the dataset description and cited source for coverage, definitions and any unit conversions. Displayed values may be rounded for readability.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value in 2026.
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
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