Move Over Tiger Woods, Roger Federer Is Now The #1 Earning Athlete In Sports History

Roger Federer

Shutterstock / Leonard Zhukovsky


Tiger Woods was the first ever athlete to have a net worth of over $1 billion. Of course, this was before Tiger’s divorce when he took a massive financial hit and lost both assets and sponsorships. But this isn’t about that. This is about money won/earned throughout an athlete’s career.

Tiger previously held the record with $110,061,012 (£83.5 million) won throughout his PGA career. Obviously, that number doesn’t include Tiger’s sponsorship earnings, that’s just money he won on the golf course (*not gambling*). With two wins in 2017, Roger Federer has surpassed Tiger Woods’ career earnings and according to Forbes, Roger’s now the #1 prize money earner in Sports history.

Federer’s three-set victory over Germany’s Alexander Zverev in his second group match at the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals in London on Tuesday took his prize money to a cool $110,235,682.
That means he has surpassed previous prize money leader Woods, a 14-time major golf champion who has earned $110,061,012 in prize money in his career.
Unlike Federer, the American’s earnings have stalled since revelations in 2009 about his private life and a string of long-term injuries in recent years. (via)

There’s no telling where Tiger Woods‘ career earnings would be today if 1) his dad was still alive, 2) he stayed healthy, 3) he didn’t repeatedly cheat on his wife and throw his personal life into an extremely tumultuous state. First place at the 2017 Masters paid out $1.98 million. The prize pools have consistently gone up in golf so in another world Tiger might’ve been up to $150 million by now, but we’re not talking about hypotheticals.

Roger Federer has stayed healthy and at the top of his game for longer than any athlete in Tennis history. It’s incredible. Federer’s won 98 tournaments since turning pro in 1998 and he’s 100% certain to earn more money before he retires so that figure of $110,235,682 will only continue to grow. Must be nice.

[h/t Business Insider]