Roger Federer surpass Messi to become world’s highest-paid athlete.

Annual Forbes list released on Friday confirms Roger Federer is the world’s highest-paid athlete for 2020, sweeping Lionel Messi off the top spot.

The 20 Grand Slam singles titles holder, earned 106.3 million dollars in the last 12 months, including 100 million dollars via endorsements.

This helped him to move up four places and become the first player from his sport to top the list.

Football players Cristiano Ronaldo (105 million dollars), Messi (104 million dollars) and Neymar (95.5 million dollars) and American basketball player LeBron James (88.2 million dollars) rounded out the top five.

“The coronavirus pandemic triggered salary cuts for football stars Messi and Ronaldo. It cleared the way for a tennis player to rank as the world’s highest paid athlete for the first time,” said Kurt Badenhausen, senior editor at Forbes.

“Roger Federer is the perfect pitchman for companies, resulting in an unparalleled endorsement portfolio of blue-chip brands worth 100 million dollars a year for the tennis great.”