Maria Sharapova - Richest Athlete in Russia with $14.5 million @ 2005!
Thursday, December 22nd, 2005
Teen Tennis Queen Maria Sharapova spotted at top of wealthiest athletes in Russia list.
A Russian Finance Magazine mentioned Maria Sharapova earnings in 2005 were US $14.5 million.
Apart from the prize money from tennis tournaments, advertising contracts and mobile phone tunes contributed towards Maria Sharapova’s whooping total earning this year, the magazine quoted.
The second rank in the list is basketball player Andrey Kirilenko of the Utah Jazz, who made $10.97 million, and third was hockey player Alexei Yashin of the New York Islanders, with a $7.6 million contract.
Other Russian athletes in the Millioners club this year are:
There are six hockey players in the top 10:
4. Nikolay Khabibulin of the Chicago Blackhawks with $6.75 million
5. Ilya Kovalchuk of Atlanta Thrashers with $6.5 million
6. Sergey Fyodorov of Columbus Blue Jackets with $6.08 million
8. Alexei Kovalyov of Montreal Canadiens with $4.5 million
9. Alexei Zhamnov of Boston Bruins with $4.1 million
10. Sergey Zubkov of Dallas Stars with $4 million
7th rank was held by Russian Boxer Konstantin Tszyu, with $5.5 million.
Russia’s Top 100 wealthiest athletes made about $179 million in 2005 and it is a decline compared with last year’s $195 million, for which the magazine says is mostly accounted for by the new NHL trade union regulations.
The athletes’ incomes were evaluated on two basic sources, money coming from signed contracts of prize money - i.e. the sports money, and money from advertising contracts.
