The best professional athletes earn bucketloads of cash. Along with match fees and incentive bonuses, brand sponsorships are major money generators.
Superstars like Roger Federer, David Beckham, Sachin Tendulkar and Serena Williams have banked more cash from wearing watches, driving cars and showing off fashionable apparel than they have from doing what they love doing best… and that’s playing their respective sports.
The really big money comes from you and I… the TV viewers. Whether we live in Zambia, Tibet, Fiji or Papua New Guinea, we are always glued to our screens watching the best of the best fighting it out for the championship, the title or the cup.
What do star-studded athletes do with their money? They donate some of it to charity, blow most of it on luxury items and invest it… sometimes in sports teams!
Here are five legendary athletes who have bought a stake in live sports:
Didier Drogba – Phoenix Rising
Image Source: scorenigeria.com.ng
In 2017 former Chelsea’s Striker, Didier Drogba became a shareholder of the second tier United Soccer League team, Phoenix Rising. In so doing he became the first-ever player-owner of a football club in the history of the sport. The Ivorian, who scored a total of 157 Premier League goals for the London club, ended his career in November 2018.
Drogba signed off as Chelsea’s fourth highest goal-scorer of all-time and over his short stint as a player for ‘his’ Arizona club, he netted 17 goals in 26 appearances. After getting advice from Chelsea’s owner Roman Abramovich, the 40-year-old is now focusing his attention on the back-end of the club.
Phil Mickelson – San Diego Padres
Image Source: eastvillagetimes.com
Five-time majors’ winner Phil Mickelson is known for his aggressive playing style, insatiable love of gambling and high-risk insider trading. The American golfer recently banked $9 million when he beat Tiger Woods in ‘The Match’ in Las Vegas.
Mickelson combined his passion for sports betting and investing when he joined a consortium that purchased his home town pro baseball team, the San Diego Padres for $800 million. It was obviously more of an emotional investment for the 48-year-old Californian as apart from winning two NL Pennants around twenty years ago, the Major League Baseball team only has a few Hall of Famers to show for its efforts.
Rafael Nadal – Real Mallorca
Image Source: rafaholics.com
The King of Clay is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He has bagged 17 grand slam titles and topped the ATP World rankings for a total of 197 weeks. Rafael Nadal is also passionate about football and supports Real Madrid.
Nadal, who was born on the island of Majorca, bought a ten percent shareholding in local football club Real Mallorca in 2010. Along with his uncle Raffa provided the cash injection to rescue the club from mounting debt.
The partnership was short-lived. Due to a dispute with the board the Nadals sold their stake to a German businessman a year later.
Williams Sisters – Miami Dolphins
Image Source: tennis.life
Serena and Venus Williams are household names. Between them they’ve won 33 grand slam singles titles and earned more money than you can even dream of. The star tennis players have both reached the number one spot on the WTA world rankings, bagged multiple Olympic gold medals and won 14 grand slam doubles titles.
The Williams sister have branched out into all sorts of lucrative businesses and in 2009 they became the first ever African-American women to own a stake in a National Football League franchise. Together with Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Marc Anthony and Jimmy Buffett, they became co-owners of the Miami Dolphins.
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