of sports and men

In Sport mag list of the wealthiest sportsmen, Tiger Woods is number one while Manny Pacquiao at sixth, quite remarkable for a Filipino. It also comes as no surprise that both men are now deemed controversial through rumours of extra-marital affairs. Well, some women want to bask in luxury and experience the privilege of living the grand existence. Going back to the list, there are only two footballers in the honor roll aside from the David Beckham who is at number three. The fabled club though does not include Cristiano Ronaldo but Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi, two South Americans now on the opposite levels of playing firepowers. Yes, Beckham is the only English footballer with the dream marketability. Just to show the profitability of basketball as a sport, there are more NBA players on the roster than any other sports. LeBron James is just outside the top three at number four, while Kobe could only manage 15th, lower than Yao Ming at 13, Kevin Garnett at 14 and Shaq who is joint ninth with Formula One’s Fernando Alonzo and the truly magical Valentino Rossi.

For good measure here are Sport mag’s members of the Wealthy Boys Club; 1. Tiger Woods (£59.3m) 2. Phil Mickelson (P31.6m) 3. David Beckham (£26.9m) 4. LeBron James (£25.3m) 5.Kimi Raikonen (£23.9m) 6. Manny Pacquao (£23.8m) 7. Lionel Messi (23.7m) 8. Alex Rodriguez (£23.3m) 9. Valentino Rossi (£20.9m) 9.Fernando Alonzo (20.9m) 9.Shaquille O’Neal (£20.9m) 12. Kevin Garnett (£20.7m) 13. Yao Ming (£19.7m) 14. Lewis Hamilton (£19.6m) 15. Kobe Bryant (£18.6m) 16. Roger Federer (£17.6m) 17. Allen Iverson (£17.3m) 18. Vijay Singh (£17.1m) 19. Derek Jeter (£16.9m) 20. Ronaldinho (£16.3m).

It should be noted that Manny Pacquaio’s figures do not include the recent win against Miguel Cotto. Sports is universal in its appeal and although the Americans lead the way with almost half of the names on the list with nine, it’s still a very international field in a variety of sports. Before Tiger Woods came along, golf was not a top earning sport. Through Tiger, the sport has re-branded into something cooler and spectacular. But he’s only human, he makes mistakes and he likes his blondes (his former girlfriend and his wife are) although those pictures of his recent flings in the papers were brown haired or brunettes. Is this about hair color or goes deeper than mere tabloid fanfare?