Wow, that’s surprising

Sports Illustrated - whose dedication to fiscal issues is almost as great as their dedication to taking pictures of pretty ladies on the beach - have published a list of the twenty highest earning non-American sportsmen. They did this back in February, when David Beckham sat in fifth place with his paltry $29.7m annual fortune. Now, Mr B stands atop the pile with a much more befitting sum:

1. David Beckham (LA Galaxy) $48.2m
2. Kimi Räikkönen (Formula One) $46m
3. Ronaldinho (Barcelona) $37.5m
4. Leo Messi (Barcelona) $35.8m
5. Roger Federer (Tennis) $35.1m
6. Fernando Alonso (Formula One) $35m
7. Valentino Rossi (MotoCross) $34m
8. Yao Ming (Basketball) $31.8m
9. Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd) $30.3m
10. Ichiro Suzuki (Baseball) $27.6m
11. Lewis Hamilton (Formula One) $27.6m
12. Thierry Henry (Barcelona) $26.1m
13. Maria Sharapova (Tennis) $21.8m
14. John Terry (Chelsea) $21.6m
15. Michael Ballack (Chelsea) $21.5m
16. Ronaldo (AC Milan) $20.8m
17. Johan Santana (Baseball) $20.8m
18. Dirk Nowitzki (Basketball) $20.4m
19. Kaká (AC Milan) $20.1m
20. Hideki Matsui (Baseball) $19m

Grumpy Spaniard Fernando Alonso must be delighted to be earning the same money as last year in his rubbish car, while Kimi Räikkönen has shot out of nowhere to take second place. And of the nine footballers in the list, the only one whose earnings have depreciated appears to be Ronaldinho. Still, getting $37.5m for taking drugs and eating carbs like your life depends on it isn’t a terrible thing…

[Sports Illustrated via The Offside]