Comparing MS Dhoni's earnings with Top Athletes around the world
Forbes recently revealed the list of Top 100 highest paid athletes from around the globe. Indian Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the lone cricketer in that list and was ranked at number 22 ahead of some high profile names. Base on the list we at Sportskeeda looked at the MS Dhoni’s earning with other sportsmen . Basically the idea was to see if Cricket is as lucarative sports as the others. Let’s compare his earnings with some of the other highest paid atheletes from different sporting backgrounds.
With football:
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the highest paid footballers in the world. And among the two, Messi earns a little lesser than Dhoni when it comes to endorsements alone. That’s a staggering feature considering the global appeal of both the athletes and their respective sports. But both Ronaldo’s and Messi’s salaries are much higher compared to the Indian skipper. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Gareth Bale, Neymar and Radamel Falcao are the other footballers who earn more than MSD.
With Boxing:
Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather heads the charts and it’s mindboggling when you realise that he has earned 105million dollars as a result of just two fights. Endorsement money doesn’t feature for him. Whereas Manny Pacquiao earns a total of 41.8million dollars compared to Dhoni’s 30million dollars. Wladimir Klitschko is ranked just a little below Dhoni at 25 with a pay of 28 million dollars.
With Basketball:
Kobe Bryant’s endorsement earnings are same as Dhoni’s overall earnings. His rival NBA star Lebron James earns even more. Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony are the other top basketball earners.
Among the Tennis fraternity, former World number 1 Roger Federer, 9 time French Open Champion Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are ranked above the Indian Skipper.
Out of those 21 guys who rank above Dhoni, nine of them are from ‘The United States of America’. As per the big mac index, the money earned in India is undervalued by 62%, which means Dhoni’s earnings in USA would have been 48 million dollars.
That would have powered him in to the top 10 placing him at number 9 ahead of the likes of Rafael Nadal, Gareth Bale, Lewis Hamilton etc. These figures just highlight the brand value of Dhoni and considering his incredible achievements with a calm head over the years, we can safely say that he deserves every bit of it.