He ran away from his circumstances in war-torn South Sudan. Today, this refugee athlete has crossed boundaries, broken barriers and has Olympic aspirations.



Seventy million. That’s the number of refugees forcibly displaced worldwide. The size of an entire nation. People without homes in a world that is now saying ‘stay home, stay safe’.



&nbsp;Jamal Abdelmaji Eisa Mohammed is one of them, forced to leave his home at a young age. Still in his 20s, this South Sudan-born migrant refused to confine himself within boundaries. In fact, he crossed several of them, as a full-time ‘refugee athlete’, eventually making it to the finish line and winning gold at world sporting events.



When he was only eight years old, he had to endure the tragedy of losing his father – who was shot and killed by the militia in his home country. “When you grow up, you have your dad and you don’t need to worry about anything because someone cares about you, and [then] you lose him and life goes from good to terrible and that’s how I decided to do something for my siblings because I was now the head of the family,” recalls Mohammed.



In 2010, this led him to decide to leave his conflict-ridden country to seek greener pastures. However, he legally couldn’t because he was underaged, but arranged to pay to have his date of birth changed.



“I saved money and changed my birth year from 1996 to 1993. I then traveled to Egypt and then Israel and slept in the park until I met a kind Sudanese person who let me move into his house.”



Two years on, Mohammed had made friends in the foreign country and played football with them. One of them advised him to take to athletics because he could run behind a ball for hours.



In 2014, he joined a club, and won his very first competition.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;When you grow up, you have your dad and you don’t need to worry about anything because someone cares about you, and [then] you lose him and life goes from good to terrible and that’s how I decided to do something for my siblings because I was now the head of the family.”</blockquote>



Today, Mohammed is a part of the Athlete Refugee Team (A.R.T), formed in early 2017 by Kenyan long-distance runner, Tegla Loroupe, for refugee track athletes competing in global IAAF (World Athletics) events and the Olympics. A.R.T is funded by On Running, IAAF, the UNHCR and Pascal Gerdsmeier, a private investor based in Monaco. A.R.T, made up of refugees from the Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Morocco, is hoping to take them to next year’s Tokyo Olympic Games as medal contenders.



A 90-minute documentary titled RUN, released on June 20 (World Refugee Day), depicts the story of A.R.T from inception to the current coronavirus crisis that has stalled the sporting world. The documentary, shot over three years and across three continents, follows the athletes’ “emotional journey to compete at the Olympics”, and covers their lives, from “living in war-torn tribal regions to competing on the world stage”. It’s the story of the human spirit and how sport can change lives.



Since 2017, Mohammed has traveled between Europe and Africa competing professionally. A top contender for the now-postponed Olympics, he continues training hard for the proposed event in 2021. He ran away from his destiny at a young age, and continues to change the course of his life.

Jamal Mohammed [2]

Success In The Long Run

After a disappointing season, the soccer superstar is eyeing the exit at Barcelona, but he still is on pace to reach that astronomical goal alongside Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather and, yes, Cristiano Ronaldo.



The only move Lionel Messi really needs to make to become soccer’s next billion-dollar man is none at all. If the star forward simply shows up at Barcelona’s Camp Nou in September, he will end the 2020–21 season with more than $1 billion in career earnings, a victory only three athletes before him have won.



It looks like the high-fives may have to wait. After a yearlong battle with FC Barcelona, the Argentine icon is threatening to leave the club after 16 years, ditching the final year of a contract that could make&nbsp;him the highest-paid player in what has become the world’s most lucrative sport.&nbsp;



“Globalization has made soccer, always the world&#8217;s most popular sport, also the world’s most lucrative in terms of revenue generation,” says Stefan Szymanski, author of&nbsp;Soccernomics&nbsp;and a University of Michigan professor of sport management. “In soccer, there is more or less unfettered competition on a global scale—there are no drafts, salary caps, etc.—and the best players generally go to the highest bidder.”



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="396" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gettyimages-1167251285-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45803" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gettyimages-1167251285-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gettyimages-1167251285-594x594-1-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



It’s the kind of free-market economics that until this year were the domain of independent contractors.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/2009/09/29/tiger-woods-billion-business-sports-tiger.html">Tiger Woods</a>&nbsp;was the first athlete to earn $1 billion while still competing when in 2009 he sunk $10.5 million in prize money and more than $100 million off the links, mostly through an endorsement deal with Nike.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2017/08/26/how-floyd-mayweather-became-boxings-1-billion-man/">Floyd Mayweather</a>&nbsp;landed the honor in 2017 after a bet on himself that removed legendary promoter Bob Arum from his corner and led to a string of self-produced pay-per-view bouts that brought in more than $25 million 12 times, including $275 million for his 2017 fight with Conor McGregor. Messi’s longtime rival&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2020/06/04/ronaldos-105-million-year-tops-messi-and-crowns-him-soccers-first-billion-dollar-man/">Cristiano Ronaldo</a>&nbsp;became the first team-sport competitor to do it when he earned $105 million during the 2019-20 season.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2014/06/12/michael-jordan-is-a-billionaire-after-increasing-stake-in-hornets/">Michael Jordan</a>, who tallied $550 million in career earnings during his 15 years playing for the Chicago Bulls and the Washington Wizards, remains the world’s only billionaire athlete, the bulk of his fortune created by a well-timed investment in the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.



Messi’s arrival in the billion-dollar clubhouse will mark a climactic chapter in what has been soccer’s most expensive sideshow since 2009, when he and Ronaldo&nbsp;first faced off on competing teams in Spain’s La Liga. The strutting and often shirtless Ronaldo&nbsp;perfected the sport’s showman brand while the media-shy Messi was hailed as the modest one, more interested in his footwork than footwear, as prolific a goal scorer as a wingman and a master at crediting teamwork.



Ronaldo, who is two years older, has become the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2019/08/03/social-medias-most-valuable-athletes-ronaldo-mcgregor-and-lebron-score/">world’s most popular celebrity</a>, with 443 million social followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter—and the most marketable athlete in the world, too. According to Hookit, which tracks social media sponsorship value, from January to July this year, he created $28 million in value for the brands he promoted through 275 social media posts and the 873 million engagements with them. He has a lifetime deal with Nike and a long-term partnership with Herbalife, as well as a lifestyle brand that started with his CR7 line of underwear in 2013 and has expanded to include shoes, perfume, denim, hotels, gyms and his latest offering introduced this month,&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://robbreport.com/style/accessories/cristiano-ronaldo-sunglasses-cr7-eyewear-2941551/" target="_blank">sunglasses</a>. Last season, Ronaldo earned $45 million of his $105 million off the pitch.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="396" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/gettyimages-1142682752-594x594.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-40860" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/gettyimages-1142682752-594x594.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/gettyimages-1142682752-594x594-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Messi is no endorsement slouch either, earning about $33 million annually through endorsement deals with lifetime partner Adidas, Lays, Mastercard, watchmaker Jacob &amp; Co, Qatar-based telecom Ooredoo and his new signature lifestyle brand launched last year with Ginny Hilfiger, sister of Tommy, at The Messi Store website. Hookit reports that from January to July this year, Messi put up 117 social media posts that received 235 million likes, comments or shares, creating $22 million in marketing value for the brands he promoted.



Barcelona is planning to pay its star forward $92 million this upcoming season, about a third of that in the form of performance incentives. Messi has been consistent earning those, posting 12 consecutive seasons with at least 31 goals and hitting 700 career goals in June, joining Ronaldo as the only active player at that level.



Until last week, soccer watchers were expecting the Argentine icon to sign a new&nbsp;deal on par with his current one to take him through retirement, but that was before his battle with Barcelona boiled over. The yearlong fight included a dustup over the midseason appointment of a manager that ended with his dismissal this week, a smear campaign against Messi and his wife reportedly dialed up by the club itself, and an embarrassing 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich that put an early finish to Barça’s Champions League title hopes. It was the first season in 12 years that Messi failed to win a trophy and one for which he took&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2020/03/30/lionel-messis-coronavirus-wage-cut-could-cost-him-50-million/">a 70% cut in base pay</a>—$11 million—after the pandemic halted play for three months.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47209" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Where he lands—and how much he will make there—remains to be seen, although it is unlikely any club can afford to pay him the salary Barcelona can. Messi could do what Ronaldo did when he left Real Madrid&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2018/07/10/cristiano-ronaldo-takes-a-wage-cut-and-leaves-real-madrid-for-juventus/">for Italy’s Juventus</a>&nbsp;and make up for lower gross pay with a tax scheme that keeps his net pay level.



Or if Barcelona’s new manager, Ronald Koeman, can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/53827543" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bring peace back to Barcelona</a>, he could make the whole thing happen this year after all.



“He is the best player in the world, and the best player in the world you want in your team; you don’t want him playing against you,” Koeman said at a Wednesday press conference.



No matter what Messi chooses, the billion-dollar honor is his to lose. Soccer’s No. 3 earner, Neymar, has so far earned $450 million in his career and stands to make less than $100 million this season. Neymar’s Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappé will make less than half that.



-Christina Settimi, Forbes Staff

TOPSHOT-FBL-EUR-C1-BARCELONA-NAPOLI

The Next Billion-Dollar Athlete: Lionel Messi Closes In

The 2019 season-capping victory for tennis star Ashleigh Barty was one she will not likely soon forget. Her triumph at the WTA Finals in Shenzhen, China, in November gave her a fourth title for the year and paid her $4.4 million, a record for any men’s or women’s tennis event, which pushed her winnings for 2019 to $11.3 million.



The prize money lands the Australian ace at No. 3 on this year’s ranking of the highest-paid female athletes, with a total haul of $13.1 million. She ranks well below global icon Serena Williams, who landed at No. 2 with $36 million, $32 million of which was paid out from endorsement deals. Both were eclipsed by Naomi Osaka, who earned just $3.4 million in prize money but landed at No. 1 with $37.4 million thanks to her own massive sponsor roster.&nbsp;



For female athletes out to get rich from their dominance, tennis is the go-to sport. Nine of the world’s ten highest-paid female athletes make their living with a racket, with the only exception this year being Alex Morgan, co-captain of the U.S. women’s national soccer team, who lands at No. 10 with $4.6 million. The aces can thank Rosie Casals.



Casals, whose 112 doubles tournament titles are the second-highest total ever, was one of nine female tennis players, dubbed the Original 9, who broke ranks with the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association a half-century ago to protest the dollar difference between male and female prize money, which reached as high as 12-to-1 at events. The fight—which led to players including Casals and her longtime doubles partner Billie Jean King being banned from events sanctioned by the USLTA—gave birth to the Virginia Slims Tour, which later morphed into the WTA.&nbsp;



“We knew what we were doing was very important, but in some ways, we didn’t have anything to lose,” says Casals, who will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the tour’s first event next month. “I’m proud to see where women’s tennis is 50 years later and to know that we were instrumental in the success of the game today.”



The U.S. Open was the first Grand Slam tournament to offer gender pay equality, in 1973, but it would be 28 years before another Slam followed suit: the Australian Open in 2001. The biggest tennis events now pay equal prize money to men and women; Wimbledon in 2007 was the last Grand Slam to update its payouts. But it was a long road for women’s tennis players, who faced the same fight for better pay that athletes in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanaglass/2020/05/02/federal-judge-upends-us-womens-national-teams-fight-for-equal-pay/">soccer</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanaglass/2020/01/14/wnba-players-union-reach-progressive-eight-year-collective-bargaining-agreement/">basketball</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolschram/2019/08/29/this-falls-dream-gap-tour-sees-top-womens-hockey-players-working-to-advance-their-game/">hockey</a>&nbsp;have tackled in recent years.



Outside of prize money, Osaka and Williams remain tennis’ only female superstars, with Osaka setting a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2020/05/22/naomi-osaka-is-the-highest-paid-female-athlete-ever-topping-serena-williams/">record for female athletes</a>&nbsp;this year, beating the earnings record set by Maria Sharapova in 2015 when she earned&nbsp;$29.7 million and unseating Williams, who held the No. 1 position for the past four years.



Osaka scored a slew of new endorsement deals following her back-to-back Grand Slam titles at the 2018 U.S. Open and the 2019 Australian Open, including Nike&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/nike" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NKE</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/nike">+1.2%</a>, which committed roughly $10 million annually to win her away from Adidas. Osaka now has 15 endorsement partners, including global brands like Nissan Motor, Shiseido and Yonex.



Morgan is the lone non-tennis player to crack the top ten, thanks to a massive endorsement portfolio worth ten times as much as her roughly $400,000 on-field salary and bonus last year. She has more than a dozen current sponsors, including Nike, Coca-Cola&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/coca-cola" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">KO</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/coca-cola">+0.4%</a>, Volkswagen and AT&amp;T. Her latest is an Alex Morgan Barbie Doll, as part of the brand’s Role Model Series.



Morgan’s fellow U.S. women’s national soccer team co-captain Megan Rapinoe just missed the top ten with an estimated $4.2 million. Her profile and earnings soared after she led the U.S. to the 2019 World Cup championship as the tournament’s Golden Boot&nbsp;winner and became a cultural icon&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2019/07/22/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Rapinoe.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">following attacks by President Donald Trump</a>. In addition to a lucrative book deal, she cashed in with a flurry of speaker engagements, with fees approaching six figures. Rapinoe also endorses Nike, Budweiser, BodyArmor, Visa and at least a half-dozen more brands.



“We can’t be complacent,” Casals says about the ongoing pay disparity between men and women. “We must continue to improve the exposure and profile of the women’s game so the value continues to rise. We were fortunate, but we need more women in places of power in business.”



Our earnings tally looks at prize money, salaries, bonuses, endorsements and appearance fees between June 1, 2019, and June 1, 2020. The time frame means the coronavirus had only a marginal impact as tennis players missed out on prize money from just two and a half months of missed events. But earnings will be down significantly in next year’s accounting. In addition to the cancellation of Wimbledon, the WTA canceled its seven events in China scheduled for October and November, including the lucrative WTA Finals. Prize money for the events in China would have totaled&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/sports/tennis/wta-tour-china-tournaments-canceled.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">roughly $30 million</a>. Almost all players will also have reductions in their apparel and racket contracts for not meeting minimum play requirements.



1. Naomi Osaka



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="401" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-1198783851-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45396" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-1198783851-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-1198783851-594x594-1-300x203.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Total Earnings: $37.4 million



Prize Money: $3.4 million



Endorsements: $34 million



Osaka held dual citizenship growing up but made the wise choice to represent Japan ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, now scheduled for 2021. The decision made her an even hotter commodity for Olympic sponsors, like Procter &amp; Gamble&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/procter-gamble" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PG</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/procter-gamble">+0.7%</a>, All Nippon Airways and Nissin, which signed endorsement deals with Osaka to use her around marketing for the Games. Among all tennis players, only Roger Federer made more than Osaka from endorsements.



2. Serena Williams



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="698" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-1024x698.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47139" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-1024x698.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-scaled-300x205.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-scaled-600x409.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-768x524.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-1536x1047.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-2048x1397.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption> (Photo by REUTERS/Carl Recine) </figcaption></figure></div>



Total Earnings: $36 million



Prize Money: $4 million



Endorsements: $32 million



Endorsement partners like Nike, Gatorade, Procter &amp; Gamble and Beats get a boost from Serena’s massive social media following of nearly 40 million fans across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Williams and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2020/07/21/serena-williams-natalie-portman-and-uswnt-legends-part-of-female-ownership-group-bringing-womens-professional-soccer-to-los-angeles/">part of an investment group</a>&nbsp;that was awarded the newest National Women’s Soccer League expansion team in Los Angeles this summer. Their daughter, Olympia, is also part of the group and at 2 years old became the youngest known professional sports team owner.



3. Ashleigh Barty



Total Earnings: $13.1 million



Prize Money: $10.1 million



Endorsements: $3 million



Barty won her first career Slam at the 2019 French Open, triggering lucrative bonuses from sponsors Fila and Head. She also endorses Rado, Jaguar, Vegemite, Banana Boat, and Esmi. In June 2019, she became the first Australian woman ranked No. 1 since 1976.



4. Simona Halep



Total Earnings: $10.9 million



Prize Money: $6.9 million



Endorsements: $4 million



Halep added her second career Slam title at Wimbledon last year, and her $36.5 million in career prize money ranks fourth all-time. (Williams is first at $93 million.) Halep’s sponsors include global brands Nike, Wilson, Hublot and Avon, as well as several more in her native Romania.



5. Bianca Andreescu



Total Earnings: $8.9 million



Prize Money: $4.9 million



Endorsements: $4 million



Andreescu made history as the first Canadian, male or female, to win a Grand Slam event when she captured the 2019 U.S. Open. The title and her No. 5 year-end world ranking triggered lucrative bonuses from sponsor Nike, which renegotiated her contract earlier in the year. Since the Open title, she’s added deals with Rolex, Gatorade, Canadian paper company Royale, and Sleep Country mattresses.



6. Garbiñe Muguruza



Total Earnings: $6.6 million



Prize Money: $2.1 million



Endorsements: $4.5 million



The Spanish-Venezuelan tennis star’s runner-up finish at this year’s Australian Open was only her second time advancing past the fourth round of a Grand Slam since her 2017 Wimbledon title. But she maintains a strong endorsement portfolio with Adidas, Beats, Rolex, Cesar insurance, Babolat and Maui Jim sunglasses. Her Adidas deal is one of the bigger apparel deals in the sport.



7. Elina Svitolina



Total Earnings: $6.4 million



Prize Money: $5.4 million



Endorsements: $1 million



The Ukrainian reached the semifinals of both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2019, and she matched her career-high No. 3 world ranking. Svitolina counts Nike, Wilson, Hublot, Damilano Barolo wines, and EAFit nutrition products as sponsors.



8. Sofia Kenin



Total Earnings: $5.8 million



Prize Money: $4.8 million



Endorsements: $1 million



Kenin won the Australian Open in January, building on her WTA Most Improved Player Award in 2019. At 21, she was the youngest American to win a Slam since Serena Williams in 2002. Her main sponsors are Fila and Babolat.



9. Angelique Kerber



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47144" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Total Earnings: $5.3 million



Prize Money: $1.3 million



Endorsements: $4 million



Kerber’s three Grand Slam wins since the start of 2016 are the most in women’s tennis. Her most lucrative sponsorship deal is with Adidas, which has partnered with the German tennis star since 2013. Other endorsements include Yonex, Generali, Porsche and Lavazza.



10. Alex Morgan



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="647" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-1024x647.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47143" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-1024x647.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-scaled-300x190.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-scaled-600x379.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-768x485.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-1536x971.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-2048x1295.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Total Earnings: $4.6 million



Salary/bonus: $400,000



Endorsements: $4.2 million



Morgan extended her deal with Nike after the 2019 World Cup with a clause that guaranteed pay for 18 months even if she was not playing. Nike had previously been criticized for a lack of maternity protection in its contracts with female athletes. Morgan gave birth to her first child in May. She is launching her own media company, with more details expected by the end of the year.



-Kurt Badenhausen,Forbes Staff

Rogers Cup Toronto – Day 7

Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2020: 50 Years After Creation Of Women’s Tour, Tennis Dominates Earnings List

In South Africa, the ‘Big Three’ – rugby, cricket and soccer – face plummeting revenues in the wake of no live sport, while minor codes are under even greater threat as crucial sponsorship money dries up.



South African sport faces a crisis the likes of which has never been seen before and one that has the potential to change the game forever as the Covid-19 pandemic threatens the brittle fabric that has kept professionalism alive in the country.



Rugby, cricket and soccer all face plummeting revenues in the wake of no live sport, while minor codes are under even greater threat as crucial sponsorship money dries up.



The ‘Big Three’ all rely heavily on broadcast revenue, and for rugby and soccer, the inability to stage live sport in the first few months of the lockdown has put that relationship under threat. As has the worsening economic crisis in the country, which could see millions more people out of jobs and cancelling their subscriptions to pay channel SuperSport in what will be the longer-term effect of the pandemic.



Tough economic times do not bode well for sports, with the corporate paymasters loathe to be seen to be pumping money into sponsorship while at the same time laying off workers.



The immediate threat to all sports is to keep paying the players and staff, and across the board, there have been salary cuts that suggest the days of largesse are over, for now, and possibly, the foreseeable future.



South Africa’s Premier Soccer League (PSL) faces the potential for collapse as we know it, with clubs already cutting player salaries, laying off non-playing staff and facing a burst to the bubble of what is seen by many as the richest and best-equipped league in Africa.



Absa announced a premature end to their lucrative deal as headline sponsors of the league, worth some R140 million ($8.3 million) per season, while stalwart clubs such as Bidvest Wits, with a rich 99-year history, have been sold as owners reconsider their appetitive for the sport.



“Football all over the world is a business like any other,” Cape Town City owner John Comitis tells FORBES AFRICA. “It has to be treated as such and that means in tough economic times, you have to look at ways of cutting costs.



“But as a club, we will do everything possible to limit the damage. A lot of that will be dependent on how quickly we can re-start the season, because we need to fulfil our contractual obligations to our sponsors and the broadcaster.



“That is the major source of income and without that, it is inevitable that the effect will trickle down to staff and the players.



“But even if you cut player salaries, the cost of running a club remains high. It is a very difficult situation and some [clubs] will handle it better than others.”



Fellow top-flight side AmaZulu confirmed they could not pay full salaries as early as the end of April, though they were guarded on the size of the cuts, saying in a letter to players and staff, “even though the club receives the [R2 million] PSL grant and has Spar as a sponsor, it still relies on other income streams and significant contribution from the owners of the club whose businesses have been severely affected by Covid-19”.



In rugby, some of the country’s top players will lose up to 43% of their monthly earnings up to the end of 2020 after South African Rugby announced plans to cut its budget by R1.2 billion ($71.5 million) for the year.



This would be achieved through a mixture of interventions, including cancelling junior competitions, and limiting other operations such as training camps, coaching courses and non-essential work.



But players will also feel the brunt, with a sliding scale used to determine how much they will lose on their monthly wage, which according to reports, is on average around R50,000 ($2,980) per month across the board, though higher earners can collect five times that amount.



The cuts, which amount to 25% of total remuneration across the industry, are not just for players, but coaching staff, administrators and office workers as well. Those earning less than R20,000 ($1,192) per month will not be affected.



“It was a complex process to find alignment with a number of entities representing 1,396 people in the South African rugby industry,” SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux says.



“The group identified our collective areas of financial risk and what savings had to be made and then identified a plan to mitigate those risks.



“It has meant salary cuts for many, but we have put together a plan that will ensure the industry will be positioned and resourced to get straight back to action just as soon as we are permitted.”



Cricket has largely been shielded from the financial fallout due to the fact that the season was coming to an end just as lockdown was implemented.



It means the industry would have been dormant for a few months in any case, and the national team players mostly idle, though a limited overs tour to Sri Lanka in June was called off.



South Africa’s home summer really kicks into gear in December, by which time authorities are hopeful they will at least be able to stage matches and fulfil their contractual obligations, though a poorly-performing economy may have longer-lasting effects.



“We have budgeted for the amount [of salaries for the season],” Cricket South Africa Acting CEO Jacques Faul says. “It’s a centralized system and both the national team and [domestic] franchise players are budgeted for. At this stage, we will have enough capacity to see us through the [2020/21] season.



“But in the long term, even if we cover this season, we will have to look at what the situation is going to be after that and the financial impact it has. In our situation, I cannot see any player getting less money this season, but going forward, I can see a situation where players might have to receive less.”



The great uncertainty for everyone is the difficulty in predicting how the Covid-19 pandemic will play out in South Africa.



But what is clear is if salaries and jobs are to be saved, the games need to start sooner rather than later, or the money will simply dry up, and in a worst-case scenario, the likes of rugby and cricket could return to the amateur era.&nbsp;



– By Nick Said

Sowet soccer

How Covid-19 Is Playing Out In Sport In South Africa

The 19-year-old South African gymnast was all set for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in July, for which she had qualified. With the event’s postponement, her goal hasn’t changed, she says, only the timeline has.&nbsp;



At just 19 years old, Caitlin Rooskrantz is South Africa’s gold medal-winning international gymnast.



From Florida, a small suburb in Roodepoort in Johannesburg, and currently in lockdown in the country, if the Covid-19 pandemic hadn’t happened, Rooskrantz would have now been intensely training for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in July, for which she had qualified.



&nbsp;“I qualified for the 2020 Games being the first woman in South Africa’s gymnastics history to have achieved an outright qualification at the world championships,” she told an audience of female powerhouses at the 2020 FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit in Durban on March 6.



Even as a child, when she first took to gymnastics, she had been set on making it to the Olympics one day.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The news of the Games’ postponement has been quite upsetting, but says Rooskrantz: “It is in the best interest of all the athletes because our health comes first, always!” Her favorite quote, in particular, comforts her at this time: “The goal hasn’t changed, just the timeline has, keep going!”



Her training has continued through the lockdown and it has kept her afternoons busy.



“We have set programs to keep up our strength, fitness and flexibility. To try and keep up my mental game, I watch videos daily of any past successful competitions. I analyse my training videos and try to mentally put myself in the video,” she says.



2019 had been “a spectacular year” for her.



“I managed to pass matric well with two distinctions and university entrance while training for my childhood dream. Not only did I bag South Africa’s first-ever gold medal on uneven bars on an international stage, but at just 18 years old, I made history,” she said at the summit, to an applauding audience.&nbsp;



In an interview with FORBES AFRICA, Rooskrantz reflects on the days when it all started, as a young child, when she was a bundle of energy and her parents knew early on that they had to redirect that energy to sport.



A teenager now, but if Rooskrantz has already seen much success, she has also experienced tragedy and hardship.



When she was just eight, her father, from whom she inherited her deep love for sport, passed away. He took his own life.



She had been training at a gymnastics center a few kilometers from home, but that had to stop because of the tragedy and transportation issues. But her former trainer took it upon herself to regularly drive her there.



“Everything started escalating and things took a turn. I dropped all my school sports because I didn’t have any time for them; I had to pick one, especially with the high demand of gym,” she says.



Rooskrantz was placed on a high-performance program and soon started traveling; training more than four hours a day six days a week at the age of 11. This was the intermediate level of her tumbling (a gymnastic feat including the execution of acrobatic feats) profession and the best was yet to come.



Her first overseas trip was to Australia for a training camp in 2012. A few months later, Rooskrantz competed in Serbia for her first international competition. It might have not been the best competition for her, but it was great exposure.



In 2014, South Africa hosted the African gymnastics championships with Rooskrantz the youngest member of the junior team.



“I did well, I don’t remember falling and I made it to the bar finals and that was the time I started to realize my potential on the asymmetric bar. I left that with a big boost to my confidence.”&nbsp;



The young student was progressing quickly, reaching new heights.



On her last year as a junior in the 2016 Junior Commonwealth Games in Namibia, she made three apparatus finals; asymmetric bar, vault and the balancing beam.



An injury kept her away from the Commonwealth Games in Australia in 2018, when she went in for surgery and was off the apparatus for months.



“I was in bed after my operation but back at gym a week after, still on crutches, working on my upper body. In a sport like gymnastics, when you are that injured, it is critical to do something because you lose strength, flexibility and fitness. I was also working on my mental state,” she says of those hard days. Her coach told her the surgery was either going to make or break her career. She was determined to return stronger. She did, and how.

2020 Forbes Woman Africa Leading Women Summit

Staying Flexible: With The Postponement Of The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, This Gymnast’s Goal Hasn’t Changed

Not since World War II has the global sports industry faced such a crippling crisis, which is likely to cost billions of dollars in lost revenue and could yet see the permanent extinction of some teams and competitions.



The coronavirus pandemic that has spread across the world has the potential to change the face of sports forever, and Africa will not be spared, with one administrator suggesting the outbreak could set their game back 20 years.



The severity of the impact will be determined by how long it takes for society to live alongside the pandemic, but even if that were to happen in June, there has already been significant damage done.



Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Ahmad Ahmad has tried to provide a positive outlook, but knows the complexity of the situation on the continent is dire.



None of the 54 domestic leagues in Africa was still running in May, as Burundi was the last to close up shop the month before, but just when cross-border competitions such as the lucrative CAF Champions League, and qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup, can resume, is anybody’s guess given travel restrictions are likely to be in place for some time, and vary from country to country.



“CAF is already focused on the conditions for relaunching our competitions and our events,” Ahmad said in comments supplied to FORBES AFRICA.



“Never has a crisis of such great magnitude crossed the world, never has world sport decreed so many postponements of its programs and never has such a tsunami struck the most basic sporting practice.



“We are now condemned to rebuild the basics, or at least to reinforce them, to energize them so that at the time of recovery, we will be the best structured and best disposed to conquer or re-conquer, the dry territories of sport and football.



It is Ahmad’s way of saying that any thought of returning to pre-coronavirus levels of engagement and sponsorship are fanciful in the short-term, or perhaps even medium-term.



His suggestion of having to “rebuild the basics” is a key admission and will be the same for many sports that face a sponsorship vacuum from some of the world’s leading brands.



When airlines, major sponsors of African sport, have been laying off staff and cut their schedules to next to nothing, can they justify pumping millions of dollars into sport?



The same for car manufactures, loss-making banks and oil companies hit by the drop in the price of crude.



The health conditions to allow play for many sports in Africa may return this year, but the question is whether there will be the financial support vital to being able to play the game.



Selwyn Nathan, commissioner of South Africa’s Sunshine Tour and a leading expert on global golf, suggests the pandemic may return the sport to the year 2000 in terms of financial capabilities.



“It could be like starting a business all over again, you can’t have an attitude that people [sponsors] will just come back,” Nathan says.



“It’s not something unique to Africa, or sport anywhere in the world, but we are going to have to change the way we do things.



“Players will have to accept that they are not going to be playing for the same money, and organizers must accept they will have to ask for less [money] and possibly do more just to retain sponsors.



“It is going to fundamentally change the way we operate and we have to adapt to that.”



Winners in some co-sanctioned Sunshine Tour and European Tour golf events can earn upwards of $1.5-million per tournament, but Nathan believes those numbers will be fanciful for the foreseeable future and it is likely to be a fraction of that.



The pandemic could be the death knell for ailing Super Rugby, the southern hemisphere club championship that has been hanging on for dear life, as it was, due to dwindling interest and its format that sees players criss-cross the globe between Argentina, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Japan.



In the case of world champion Springboks, that could actually work in their favor and see them looking north to Europe for club and country competitions, where the TV revenues are greater and load on players less, according to respected Stormers coach John Dobson.



“I believe there will be a restructuring of the game and that could be at Super Rugby’s expense,” Dobson says. “There could be stronger focus on domestic competitions with less travel and more tailored for television, because ultimately, that is where you get the revenue to run the game.



“It’s critical you have a product that is appealing to rugby fans, and after this period, maybe that will rather involve South African teams playing in the [European] Heineken Cup. I don’t know, but something has to change.”



Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard, who is chairman of the APO Group, a communication and business consultancy in Africa, says he has seen first-hand the toll the virus has taken on sports federations almost across the board.



“I think, unfortunately, it will have a devastating effect for many. First of all, athletes cannot train properly and when you are at the level of international competition, just a few percentage points off can compromise your body,” he says.



“Added to that, there is no competition and the longer this goes on, the longer it will take for athletes to return to peak performances, so in the near term, you will have a poorer product for television and sponsors.”



Pompigne-Mognard says cross-border competitions are vital in Africa and it is in these multi-national tournaments where many federations across different sports make most of their revenue.



“Each African nation is unlikely to return to full health at the same time, so, for example, the Basketball Africa League, which involves 12 teams from across the continent has to be put on hold until travel is possible.



“It will go ahead, but the question is when and what are the financial consequences of this? It is something that we cannot quantify now, so we live in this state of uncertainty and that is not good for anybody, sport or business.”



The postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games to 2021 has brought much relief for many athletes, who had seen their training regimes brought to a halt, or at best conducted in the confines of their own home.



Olympic gold medalist swimmer Chad le Clos had had to make do with what he has at home while in lockdown in South Africa, one of thousands of elite athletes from across Africa in similar situations.



“It is what it is and I am happy with the decision (to move the Olympics) that has been made,” Le Clos says. “I have a small pool at home, so I attach a cord that allows me to stay stationary as I swim.”



&nbsp;“We cannot afford to take a break, even in lockdown. You cannot let yourself lose the months and months of work that you have put into your body.



“I don’t know where or when I will compete again, but you have to stay positive. You have to hope for the best, that is all we can do.”



-Nick Said

Stadium background with a green grass pitch in the daytime

All Home And No Play: Not Since World War II Has The Global Sports Industry Faced Such A Crippling Crisis

Add another zero to soccer’s most expensive rivalry.



Cristiano Ronaldo earned $105 million before taxes and fees in the past year, landing him at No. 4 on the 2020&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;Celebrity 100, one spot above his top rival in the sport, Lionel Messi, and making him the first soccer player in history to earn $1 billion.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The 35-year-old striker is only the third athlete to hit mark while still playing following Tiger Woods, who did it in 2009 on the back of his long term endorsement deal with Nike&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/nike" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NKE</a>, and Floyd Mayweather in 2017, who’s made most of his income from a cut of pay-per-view sales for his boxing matches.&nbsp;



Ronaldo, the first to do it in a team sport, has made $650 million during his 17 years on the pitch, and is expected to reach $765 million in career salary after his current contract ends in June 2022. Messi, who began playing at the senior level three years after Ronaldo, has earned a total of $605 million in salary since 2005. The only team athlete to even come within striking distance of those figures was former New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, who retired in 2016 after 22 years in MLB having earned $450 million in salary. Not even soccer legend David Beckham came close, ending his career with total earnings of $500 million, half of which came from off-pitch endorsements. 



“Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest players of all time, in the world&#8217;s most popular sport, in an era when football has never been so rich,” said Sporting Intelligence’s Nick Harris, whose Global Sports Salaries Survey ranks teams worldwide based on total salary expense. “He&#8217;s box office.&#8221;



Ronaldo and Messi’s head-to-heads heated up in Spain’s La Liga in 2009, where Ronaldo played for Real Madrid and Messi for Barcelona. Their faceoffs on the pitch ignited a nine-year battle for bragging rights as the best — and top-paid — in the sport, a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2019/06/18/the-worlds-highest-paid-soccer-players-2019-messi-ronaldo-and-neymar-dominate-the-sporting-world/#2f9e5b76b55e">highly personal</a> tit-for-tat that had them re-negotiating contracts in lockstep and monopolizing the game’s highlight reel. 



The rivalry was as entertaining as it was profitable, coming just as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2019/05/29/the-worlds-most-valuable-soccer-teams-2019/#1a0fa8ff40d6">clubs around the world</a>&nbsp;were seeing soaring attendance and an influx of television money. The two were perfectly matched for battle, on and off the pitch: Ronaldo perfected a shirtless, stylized showmanship while Messi played the quiet game, always a tad unkempt and as prolific a scorer as he was a wingman. Ronaldo strutted after every goal. Messi was a master at thanking his teammates.&nbsp;



Both backed it up. Barcelona won the La Liga title six times and two Champions Leagues trophies with Messi on the squad. Real Madrid won the Spanish title twice and the Champions League four times with Ronaldo. During their years in the league, each player nabbed four Ballon d’Ors (soccer’s MVP) and their El Classicos, the nickname for their clubs fierce clashes, were record-setting television events worldwide.&nbsp;



But when it came to leveraging celebrity, it has been no contest. Guided by Jorge Mendes of Gestifute, one of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbelzer/2019/10/21/most-powerful-sports-agents/#1cc52df93b27">world’s most powerful agents</a>, Ronaldo has amassed an ever-growing following of fans and consumers drawn to his poster-boy good looks, trend-setting hair styles, impeccable fashion sense and, lately, his softer side as a family man whose toddlers pop up on his social media posts. In January he became the first person with 200 million followers on Instagram, part of a social media army of 427 million across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter that makes him the most popular athlete on the planet.&nbsp;



Nike pays him upwards of $20 million annually and signed him to a lifetime deal in 2016, making him just the third athlete after Michael Jordan and LeBron James hitched to the Swoosh for eternity. In May, the footwear maker announced the release of a 10-year anniversary edition of his first signature Mercurial Superfly and a child’s version to celebrate his son’s 10th birthday, complete with his famous celebration stance, signature and logo. Pitches for Clear shampoo, Herbalife <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/herbalife" target="_blank">HLF</a>, and pharmaceutical maker Abbott help raise his endorsement tally to $45 million.



Ronaldo, Inc. even has a trademark — CR7, a mix of his initials and jersey number — part of a lifestyle brand that&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates accounts for a quarter of his annual endorsement income, including branded underwear that debuted in 2013 that was followed by a line of shoes, fragrances and denim wear. He partnered with Pestana Hotel Group in 2015 to open his first property a year later in his hometown of Funchal, Madeira, right above Museu CR7, a shrine for his trophies and a retail outlet for his merchandise. He’s since added CR7 clubs with Crunch Fitness, posts workout routines on YouTube and has attached his name to a social media influencing degree offered by Italian online university eCampus.



And the rivalry is far from done.



Ronaldo’s 2020 earnings include a salary of $60 million, slightly less than last year due to a 30% pay cut he agreed to take this April as a result of the pandemic. Messi, who earned $104 million in the past year after taking a 70% pay cut while coronavirus sidelined play, is poised to surpass $1 billion in all-time earnings as soon as next year, before his current Barca contract ends.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/">Christina Settimi</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sportsmoney">SportsMoney</a>

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Ronaldo’s $105 Million Year Tops Messi And Crowns Him Soccer’s First Billion-Dollar Man

Roger Federer has landed the top spot on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/athletes/">the annual&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;list of the highest-paid athletes</a>&nbsp;for the first time this year with $106.3 million in pre-tax earnings. The Swiss ace is the first tennis player to take the No. 1 rank since the list debuted in 1990.



Federer’s haul includes $6.3 million in prize money and $100 million from endorsements and appearance fees, lifting him from the No. 5 spot he held in 2019 and beating his previous high of second place in 2013.



“His brand is pristine,” says David Carter, a sports business professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business, “which is why those that can afford to align with him clamor to do so.”



Federer’s endorsement portfolio is unmatched among active athletes, with 13 brands including Barilla, Moet &amp; Chandon and Rimowa paying between $3 million and $30 million to associate themselves with the 20-time Grand Slam champ. The 38-year-old and golfer Tiger Woods are the only two active athletes to have hit $100 million in a single year from sponsorships alone.



Federer’s on-court résumé is the stuff of legend, with the men’s records for most Slam titles and most weeks ranked No. 1 (310). The consistency is staggering. He ranked in the top three for 750 straight weeks—almost 15 years—and qualified for 18 out of 19 Slam finals between 2005 and 2010.



Call it the Jordan playbook, the blueprint for global domination chronicled in ESPN’s ten-part documentary on the basketball great, The Last Dance: command a sport with a global audience for years; appeal to both men and women; stay out of trouble; add in a dose of swagger and a dash of charisma. It made Michael Jordan the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2020/04/17/the-inside-story-of-how-michael-jordan-became-the-worlds-richest-athlete/">richest athlete on the planet</a> and the first billionaire athlete. Even in retirement, he continues to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2020/05/03/michael-jordans-1-billion-nike-endorsement-is-the-biggest-bargain-in-sports/">collect endorsement checks</a> rivaling those of Federer and Woods thanks to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2019/08/28/the-nbas-richest-shoe-deals-lebron-kobe-and-durant-are-still-no-match-for-michael-jordan/">his massive cut of Nike Jordan Brand sneaker sales</a>.



The three breathe a rarefied air, reserved for the most elite competitors. Jordan had the No. 1 spot on the&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;list six times during his 13-year career with the Chicago Bulls, eventually giving up the mantle to Woods after he retired from the Bulls in 1998. (Formula One’s Michael Schumacher held the crown for two years between Woods and Jordan.) Woods went on to collect more than $100 million annually off the course at his peak, landing at the top of&nbsp;Forbes’ highest-paid athlete ranking a record 12 times until he broke stride, landing in hot water over an infidelity scandal while injuries contributed to a decade-long majors title drought on the links.



Federer, while seizing the top spot late in his career, is showing no signs of slowing down. His latest partnership is with Swiss startup running shoe On, whose headquarters sit close to the new home the tennis star is building on Lake Zurich. A renowned sneakerhead, Federer will endorse the brand, whose sales have been <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2020/01/on-the-fastest-growing-sneaker-company-youve-never-heard-of.html" target="_blank">doubling annually since its 2010 launch</a>, and also invested in the company in return for an equity stake that one source called “significant,” a partnership that could have serious upside for Federer.



Another sign of his command of the off-court side hustle: Once companies align themselves with him, they almost never leave. Rolex, Credit Suisse, Mercedes-Benz and Wilson have all been on Team Fed for more than a decade. The exception? Jordan’s Nike.



Federer stunned the tennis world in 2018 when he split from the sneaker giant after 20 years and joined with apparel brand Uniqlo. The chain, part of Fast Retailing, made an offer he couldn’t turn down, promising $300 million over ten years whether he was playing tennis or not and leaving open a slot for a shoe deal like the one with On since the Japanese giant doesn’t make sneakers.



The length and terms of the deal raised eyebrows given that Federer was about to turn 37 when he signed it. At that age, almost all tennis players have long since retired—a detail that meant little to the long game the retailer is eyeing.



“We feel the greatest impact of Roger Federer is yet to come,” says Uniqlo’s head of global creative John Jay. “Of course, it will be fueled by his status as the greatest of all time, but Roger’s ability to bring positive change to the world is his future and ours.”



The company hopes Federer can hold the same kind of appeal Jordan still has long after he launched his last jump shot. Already, tennis clubs in Europe are flooded with kids wearing “RF” hats, the logo that Nike controlled for two years after the split but is back in Federer’s hands and is the foundation for future licensing deals.



It wasn’t his only shrewd move. Federer took more control of his brand when he left the IMG sports firm with longtime agent Tony Godsick to launch their own operation in 2013, dubbed TEAM8. Current clients include male tennis pros Juan Martin del Potro and Alexander Zverev, 16-year-old rising star Coco Gauff and New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. TEAM8 also found success with the creation of a new annual event, the Laver Cup, which matches a team from Europe versus the rest of the world in a competition that is comparable to golf’s Ryder Cup.



Federer has other levers in the sport that even Jordan doesn’t have. He is a hot commodity for organizers of smaller tournaments that pay appearance fees for top players to show up; a men’s event without one of the Big Three—Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic—is a tough sell. Federer commands the top rate of more than $1 million per stop. Then there are the exhibition tours—a mix of tennis and show business—in places that have no major event to offer. He did a five-stop swing through Latin America in November that added more than $15 million to his bank account, including a match versus Zverev in a bullfighting stadium in Mexico City that attracted 42,517 fans, a record to watch a tennis match.



Federer has used his platform and cash to focus on educating children in Africa, with his namesake foundation spending $52 million to aid 1.5 million kids. He’s teamed with Bill Gates in charity matches three times; the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tracywang/2020/02/04/bill-gates-doubles-up-with-tennis-legend-roger-federer-for-much-anticipated-charity-match-in-south-africa/#5a2c77e41b92">latest “Match for Africa”</a>&nbsp;featured Gates and Federer versus Nadal and&nbsp;The Daily Show&nbsp;host Trevor Noah in South Africa, where Federer’s mother was born. The February event raised $3.7 million.



Federer is the GOAT, both on and off the court.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/">Kurt Badenhausen</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sportsmoney">SportsMoney</a>

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Roger Federer Tops World’s Highest-Paid Athletes: Tennis Ace Scores First No. 1 Payday With $106 Million

Swimming sensation Chad le Clos had planned on returning from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with gold but with the games postponed, he’s for now focusing on family, fitness and his foundation.



For many athletes, the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to 2021 has meant stalled training regimes. South Africa’s 28-year-old Olympic gold medalist swimmer Chad le Clos, at home in the coastal town of Durban while in lockdown in South Africa, says this year, he had hoped to return from the Olympics with another gold medal.



“I planned on hopefully winning a gold medal and coming back home and celebrating with the country. I was planning on doing a lot of great things this year. It is quite sad but I am looking at the bigger picture. There are a lot of things I want to achieve inside and outside of the pool. The Olympics is the biggest goal I will ever have. And hopefully, I can make South Africa proud next year.”



Posing in front of his haul of medals at home in Durban, in a Zoom interview with FORBES AFRICA, Le Clos, who was also one of FORBES AFRICA’s 30 Under 30 list-makers in 2019, says he is waiting to get back into the pool.



“Before the lockdown in South Africa, I was away in Europe training. For the last five weeks, I have not been able to train but I was very lucky to spend time with a family friend on his farm on 36 acres of land with horses and dogs, so I was mostly training outdoors.”



The sports star, who is also recovering from two recent surgeries, says swimming is different from any other sport.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“As a runner or athlete, you can run, but as a swimmer, you need to have that feel of the water. It’s a very different fitness. I am a terrible runner, I can’t run at all. But when I am in the pool, I can be as fit as I can… So focus is important, once you lose that feel, it will take weeks to get back to that fitness.”</blockquote>



Le Clos, who has been swimming competitively from the age of 10 and is a 17-time Commonwealth Games medalist, speaks about the Chad le Clos Foundation and the special projects coming up in the townships also serving underprivileged communities.



How about becoming an entrepreneur at some point, we ask in this interview.



“I don’t want to close any doors. I want to dive into everything head on. Right now, my big focus is the Olympics. I am in a great mental head space. My family is the most important thing and they are safe. Once swimming has firmly shut, I will focus on the next chapter and it will be some sort of business. I have a lot of passion projects like I have said with my foundation&#8230;”



<figure class="wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="682" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/GMD_6681-1024x682.jpg" alt="" data-id="45623" data-full-url="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/GMD_6681-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=45623" class="wp-image-45623" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/GMD_6681-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/GMD_6681-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/GMD_6681-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/GMD_6681-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/GMD_6681-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/GMD_6681-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></li></ul></figure>



Le Clos says he has looked up to swimmer Michael Phelps his whole life (and even beat him at the age of 20 by 0.05 seconds at the 2012 Olympics in London in the men’s 200meters butterfly), but the iconic boxer Muhammad Ali is his “ultimate idol”.



“For what he stood for, the greatest boxer of all time, he was the people’s champion. I am not as outspoken as he was, but I have always seen myself too as a people’s champion, I have seen myself swimming for my family, my people and my country. Muhammad Ali is my hero and icon. And my big inspiration outside of the pool.”



During the lockdown, besides “playing a lot of poker with my family and losing”, it has also been a good time to reflect.



“I like to visualize positive things. As a kid, I always visualized success, the Olympics, the gold medal, you create that moment, and let that percolate. The more positives you put out are the positives you will get back. Focus on the positives. During this time, make yourself stronger mentally. You can come out of this stronger, and it will help you going forward.”

Arena Media Marathon

Making South Africa Proud And His Inspiration Outside The Pool

The 22-year-old Japanese tennis player racked up $37 million in earnings in the past year, more than any other female athlete in history.



Naomi Osaka was only a year old when Serena Williams won her first grand slam title in 1999. Nineteen years later, Osaka beat Williams at the U.S. Open finals to win her first grand slam. It was one of the most controversial matches in Open history involving three code violations called against Williams. Now the 22-year-old ace has beaten her legendary rival once again, this time for bragging rights as the highest-paid female athlete in the world.



Osaka earned $37.4 million the last 12 months from prize money and endorsements, $1.4 million more than Serena, setting an all-time earnings record for any female athlete in a single year; Maria Sharapova held the prior record with $29.7 million in 2015.



Osaka ranks No. 29 among the 100 highest-paid athletes, while Williams is No. 33. It’s the first time since 2016 that two women have made the ranks of the top 100 highest paid athletes, with the full 2020 list set for release next week.



“To those outside the tennis world, Osaka is a relatively fresh face with a great back story,” says David Carter, a sports business professor at USC Marshall School of Business. “Combine that with being youthful and bicultural, two attributes that help her resonate with younger, global audiences, and the result is the emergence of a global sports marketing icon.”



The ascension puts an end to a decisive winning streak for Williams, who has been the world’s highest-paid female athlete each of the past four years, with annual pre-tax income ranging from $18 million to $29 million. The 23-time grand slam champion has collected almost $300 million during her career from endorsers who have swarmed the 38-year-old star.



Osaka’s rise to the head of the charts was a perfect&nbsp; convergence of several factors. She first proved herself on the court, with back-to-back grand slam titles at the 2018 U.S. Open and 2019 Australian Open. That plus her heritage—a Japanese mother and Haitian-American father—helped separate her from the pack; at only 20 when she won her Open title, she had a cool factor and engaging personality.



Osaka’s roots are crucial to her endorsement stardom. She was born in Japan. When she was three, she and her family moved to the U.S., settling on Long Island and then heading to Florida; older sister, Mari, also plays on the pro circuit.



She turned pro in 2014, a month before her 16th birthday. She cracked the WTA’s top 40 in 2016 and won her first title in March 2018 at Indian Wells. In the 12 months that followed, she became the first Japanese player to win a slam, and first Asian tennis player ever to be ranked No. 1 in the world.



Osaka maintains dual citizenship but made the wise choice to represent Japan ahead of the since-postponed Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. The decision made her an even hotter commodity for Olympic sponsors, like Procter &amp; Gamble, All Nippon Airways and Nissin, who signed endorsement deals with Osaka to use her around marketing for the Games, now scheduled for summer 2021. She is expected to be one of the faces of the Olympics that had triggered<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.olympic.org/news/unprecedented-levels-of-excitement-around-the-olympic-games-tokyo-2020" target="_blank"> unprecedented levels of excitement</a> among the Japanese public before the coronavirus.



A Decade Of Highest-Paid Female Athletes



Tennis has been a winning strategy for highest-paid female athletes. Before Naomi Osaka arrived on the scene, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams were the top earning women of the decade, holding the top spot for five and four years, respectively.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tennis-earnings.png" alt="" class="wp-image-45395" width="688" height="447" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tennis-earnings.png 755w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tennis-earnings-300x195.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tennis-earnings-600x391.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 688px) 100vw, 688px" /></figure>



The last top-earning female athlete, outside of Williams and Sharapova, was Serena’s sister Venus in 2003. Tennis remains the only route for women to rank among the top-paid male sports stars. Sharapova, Li Na, Serena, and now Osaka are the only females to rank among the 100 top earners in sports since 2012. The highest-paid female athlete every year since Forbes started tracking the data in 1990 has been a tennis player, with Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis the top earners most of the 1990s. 



Tennis players are walking billboards in the only major global sport where men and women have some level of equality in their paychecks, thanks to similarly sized audiences tuning in to watch tournaments. Prize money at the four grand slam events has been even since 2007, although men still earn more at lower level tourneys.



The demographics of the tennis fan make sponsoring top players attractive for brands. At the U.S. Open last year, attendance skewed in favor of women by a ratio of 56 to 44, a rarity at big time sporting events; 78% held at least a bachelor’s degree versus 35% for the U.S. overall; the average household income was $216,000. This is a group with significant disposable income, ready to buy apparel, sporting equipment, cars, watches and financial services.



Steering Osaka’s brand is tennis powerhouse agency IMG, which leaned on its history with breakout female tennis stars when Osaka started blowing up, having represented Maria Sharapova and Li. Stuart Duguid is her lead agent at IMG.



The apparel deal is almost always the biggest endorsement for tennis stars, and Osaka’s timing was perfect there as well, as she hit the open market just after winning two grand slams. It triggered a free agency bidding war between Nike and Adidas—her previous apparel sponsor. The Swoosh emerged on top and paid her more than $10 million last year in an agreement that runs through 2025.



Osaka secured an extremely rare but lucrative provision in her Nike contract. The sportswear giant always requires its tennis players to be clad in Nike gear from head to toe, without any other logos on their shirts or hats. This is lucrative real estate for marketers, as cameras focus closely on the player as they serve or get set to return serve.



Nike never made an exemption for Serena, Sharapova, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi or any of the other marketable tennis stars in their stable. The only exception until last year was China’s Li Na; Osaka was the second, thanks to massive leverage with Sharapova headed for retirement and Williams turning 39 this year. Her “patch” deals are with All Nippon Airways, MasterCard and ramen noodle maker Nissin Foods.



Nike plans to launch an Osaka streetwear line in Japan in the fourth quarter, featuring hoodies, leggings and shirts, as well as a new collection each season. There will not be any tennis apparel.



Osaka now has 15 endorsement partners, including global brands like Nissan Motor, Shiseido and Yonex, whose tennis racquets she has used for more than a decade; almost all are worth seven-figures annually.&nbsp;



Sharapova was 17 when she defeated Williams to win the 2004 Wimbledon crown. IMG quickly mobilized to lock up lucrative long-term deals for the Russian, who ranked as the highest-paid female athlete for 11 years before injuries and a suspension for taking a banned substance dented her earnings.



IMG got an education on marketing a female Asian tennis star with China’s Li. She was the first grand slam singles champion from Asia, man or woman, when she captured the 2011 French Open at age 29. IMG quickly secured seven multi-million deals, pushing her off-court earnings from $2 million to $20 million. She challenged Sharapova as the sport’s top earner until her retirement in 2014.



IMG used its expertise in Japan with Kei Nishikori, who has never won a grand slam but is the most successful Japanese male player ever, resulting in an endorsement portfolio worth $30 million a year.



Sharapova, Li and Nishikori paved the way for Osaka’s marketing breakthrough. “We were fortunate to have a very sophisticated office in Tokyo that already had the experience with Kei,” IMG’s head of tennis Max Eisenbud told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;last year. “The relationships in that region are important.”



With plenty of endorsement cash, Osaka<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2019/08/23/business-is-booming-for-tennis-ace-naomi-osaka/#b711e54904de"> partnered with several brands</a> last year, with significant equity components, including emerging sports drink BodyArmor and Hyperice, which makes recovery and movement products.



BodyArmor marketing exec Mike Fedele says Osaka was one of inspirations for its “Only You” ad campaign&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/timnewcomb/2020/05/20/naomi-osaka-shares-on-endorsements-bodyarmor-her-struggles-and-cooking/#a06627639a84">launched this week</a>. “Naomi is fiercely dedicated to perfecting her game on the court and a huge part of that is what she does off the court with her training, nutrition and hydration,”he says.



“I’m really interested in seeing a young business grow and adding value to that process,” Osaka told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;last year. “I tasked my team with finding brands that align with my personality and my interests.”



Brands are lining up to get into the Naomi Osaka business.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/">Kurt Badenhausen</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sportsmoney">SportsMoney</a>

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Naomi Osaka Is The Highest-Paid Athlete Ever, Topping Serena Williams

TOPLINE With most live sports suspended during the coronavirus pandemic, online gamblers have turned to different contests like Russian table tennis and Korean baseball, while also betting on everything from video games and reality television shows to political news and even the weather.



KEY FACTS



<ul><li>“[English] darts and esports have had big increases in betting volumes, along with football [soccer] leagues that have kept playing like the Belarusian Premier League,” says Pascal Lemesre, a spokesman for U.K. betting exchange platform Smarkets. “Horse racing remains our most-traded sport and has made up two-thirds of volume since the lockdown began.”</li></ul>



<ul><li>Many betting companies, like DraftKings, had to really dig and get creative with new offerings during the pandemic, says Johnny Avello, head of sportsbook for DraftKings. “We went out and found whatever we could… we wanted to keep our customers engaged.”</li></ul>



<ul><li>A charity golf match with Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning, Phil Mickleson and Tom Brady, for example, has drawn massive interest and could surpass the betting volumes DraftKings saw in last year’s major golf tournaments.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Betting on esports has also seen a huge uptick and has really “made its mark,” he says: Virtual NASCAR races proved to be immensely popular, along with daily fantasy for video games like League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. </li></ul>



<ul><li>There has also been a lot of interest in betting on politics, including who will win the 2020 U.S. presidential election, who Democratic nominee Joe Biden will choose as his vice president and how long UK prime minister Boris Johnson will stay in office. </li></ul>



<ul><li>According to data from Smarkets, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://smarkets.com/event/886736/politics/us/us-presidential-election-2020/2020-election-winner" target="_blank">almost $2 million</a> has already been traded on the election, with Donald Trump retaining a 5% lead over Joe Biden; Kamala Harris is frontrunner to be Biden’s VP, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://smarkets.com/event/2094165/politics/us/us-presidential-election-2020/democrat-nominee-vp?utm_source=cision&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=politics-prices" target="_blank">slightly ahead</a> of Amy Klobuchar.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Since the Democratic debate between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in mid-March, DraftKings has offered free-to-play betting pools around many political events, along with reality television shows like Survivor and Top Chef, and even the weather in certain states.</li></ul>



SURPRISING FACT



Bettors have certainly shown interest in gambling on the outcomes of their favorite TV shows: According to data from BetOnline, there was even a flurry of betting on the final episode of&nbsp;The Last Dance, with odds on things like whether Michael Jordan would cry while being interviewed or how many people would be shown with a cigar in their mouth.



WHAT TO WATCH FOR



Sportsbooks are seeing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/05/19/draftkings-shares-skyrocket-thanks-to-bets-on-table-tennis-korean-baseball/#451dc9df78c0">huge pent-up demand</a>&nbsp;as some major sports like NASCAR and German Bundesliga soccer start to resume. Soccer, which normally makes up 45% of the Smarkets’ betting volume, fell to 23%, maintained largely by interest in the Belarusian Premier League and Nicaraguan soccer, both of which continued to play games amid the pandemic. With the German Bundesliga resuming last weekend, betting volumes increased 428% compared to the previous round of fixtures before coronavirus, according to Smarkets.



CRUCIAL QUOTE



“When you don’t have all the normal content, customers will migrate,” Avello says. “That’s the positive that’s going to come out of this—we’re always looking for additional content.”&nbsp;



KEY BACKGROUND



DraftKings reported <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/draftkings-ceo-jason-robins-says-there-was-record-betting-on-nfl-draft.html" target="_blank">record</a> betting during the NFL Draft last month—13x the volume from last year—and has also seen strong interest in the recent return of Ultimate Fighting Championship events, the company said. “We got good action on the stuff we did, but now that we’re starting to get back to core events, demand should rise even higher,” Avello predicts. If the NBA and NHL start playoff seasons this summer and the MLB returns, for instance, “it could be one of the bigger summers that we’ve ever had.”



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/">Sergei Klebnikov</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/markets">Markets</a>

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Here Are All The Crazy Things People Are Betting On In The Absence Of Live Sports

Recovering from a knee injury the last two years, this Olympian sprinter was all set to defend his title at the Tokyo 2020 Games. In lockdown in South Africa, the ardent Mo Salah and Liverpool fan shares how he has been building his endurance and finding positivity in the chaos.



Nothing can get a good sportsman down.



Ask Cape Town-born Wayde van Niekerk, who made history at the 2016 Rio Olympics with a record-breaking performance as a track and field athlete.



In a way, the five-week government-imposed lockdown in South Africa was an extension of Van Niekerk’s own time away from the limelight, when he was already used to living and training indoors, consistently building on his physical and mental endurance.



The serious knee injury in 2017 that kept him away from the track had meant “a hibernation” of a different kind when he was steering himself for the next big competition returning to the field again in 2020.&nbsp;&nbsp;



This was also going to be the year he was going to defend his 400m world record at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.



“I came out of an injury, and it led to me entering a hibernation period of my life where a lot happened, internally, indoors, away from the TV screens,” says Van Niekerk on a Zoom interview with FORBES AFRICA from his home in Bloemfontein in South Africa’s Free State province, a day after the country lifted the lockdown with Level 4 restrictions.



“As this year started, I had shifted my mentality to becoming an athlete again, and getting ready for the next major competition, and then Covid-19 started, and that led to me taking a step back and shift back to the hibernation stage of training and strengthening myself.



“I am blessed and privileged to have equipment around me and a gym setup at home. So I was well-prepared before even the pandemic… but you do miss the track but this pandemic is something we all have to face.”



The 28-year-old, who showed promise from an early age, and who was also listed as one of FORBES AFRICA’s 30 Under 30 achievers in 2019, says he has been using the time to find peace in chaos.



“What I have learned is to try and find that peace, that positivity and calm in this storm. It’s a mentality shift that I had to meditate on, that I build a positive foundation, that I reap every strength and positivity invested in me, that once I come out of the injury, I &nbsp;come out stronger. Now, I am making sure my physical and mental strength can complement one another.”



With the Tokyo 2020 Games now postponed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, did it give him the gift of time?



“Not really. Every time is a blessing,” says Van Niekerk. “I prepared myself for that this year, but reality is what it is. And we can’t be dwelling on the losses… we can either see it as time lost or there is a goal I have set for myself, the way I am going to get it is not important. It doesn’t matter the platform it happens on, as long as it happens. I have been investing my time into it.”



From 200m events as a junior athlete, to a 400m specialist later in life, Van Niekerk is clearly among the most versatile sprinters in the history of the sport.



You can sense it’s no fake modesty when he tells you that the time away from the track has also made him want to do more for the less fortunate around him. The attention is not on himself.



“I find it difficult to focus on just me… I am very passionate about helping those around me. I am not a fan of wanting to do things that become a media event,” he says simply.



“We are going through this period to cleanse and strengthen ourselves&#8230; Forget about who you are, and see whose lives you can make easier. The people who are struggling now are the people who will give you the biggest smile and who will give you the confidence. And now it’s time for us as sports people and as human beings to find ways to consider those around us who are less fortunate and not as blessed as we are.”



The transition from indoor fitness to outdoor training, once the lockdown regulations are fully lifted, is not going to be an easy one.



“There are a lot of technical things to it in terms of getting 100% race-fit for an international stage and trying to do some competitions; to just shake off that rust and to get the legs going and the body moving and the blood flowing again. There is a massive difference between a gym workout and being a track athlete. There will be a whole few months before we get to be at the level and shape where we can improve ourselves as athletes,” he says.



The ardent Mo Salah and Liverpool fan has also been engaging with his network of sports comrades around the world. Jamaican former sprinter Usain Bolt is a good friend. You ask if he has been in touch.



“I communicate with most, but Usain is more about the banter. He’s always teasing me about the Premier League not going to finish, so they keep trying to tap into that nerve of mine as I am a passionate Liverpool supporter. So I am trying not to entertain that side of them,” laughs Van Niekerk.



As a child, Van Niekerk dreamed of becoming the fastest man in the world. It’s a dream that still keeps the speedster going.



“It is what I have been investing in ever since I was young, and what I want to achieve. With the barriers I broke came confidence, and why not believe in what I can achieve? I am invested 110% to want to improve the 100m, 200m and up to 400m, and I am more hungry and determined than ever before!”

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Wayde van Niekerk: ‘Lockdown Meant Shifting Back To Hibernation To Train And Strengthen Myself’

South Africa’s 84-year-old golf legend Gary Player speaks to FORBES AFRICA about the greatest honor of his life and on training like a 40-year-old at his daughter’s home during the lockdown in the US.



South Africa’s nine-time Grand Slam golfer, Gary Player, is currently in lockdown with his wife Vivienne in Pennsylvania, in the United States (US), where the couple are visiting their daughter Amanda-Leigh Hall and her family.



Player had also arrived in the US to receive what he calls one of the greatest honors of his life, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Donald Trump at the White House on March 23; some of the past recipients of the prestigious award include Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Mother Teresa, Toni Morrison, Tiger Woods and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.



But the lockdown changed all plans.



So the golfer, best known for an illustrious playing career that included 165 professional victories, is now in his daughter’s home, “training like a 40-year-old”.



Elated, Player classifies the Presidential Medal of Freedom recognition as coming second to the honor of being a husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.



When asked how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected him, the world-renowned 84-year-old golfer, nicknamed the ‘Black Night’, says in a phone interview from the US with FORBES AFRICA: “We are living in extraordinary times. This is not life as we have come to know it. My heart goes out to people during this trying time.”



Player fears the aftermath of the Covid-19 virus could be devastating to all, as some are already beginning to suffer due to the inability to earn an income.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“The post Covid-19 world may cause humans to sink into an inevitable hole of depression, and I fear that people will be dying not of the virus, but of hunger and thirst,” he says.</blockquote>







Player says he prays numerous times a day to thank God for his blessings. This year, he celebrates being married to Vivienne for 63 years.



“I love her even more now than I did back then, I wouldn&#8217;t trade the last 63 years for nothing on this earth,” Player says.



Vivienne has traveled the entire “amazing” route with Player while raising the couple’s six children: Jennifer, Marc, Wayne, Michelle, Theresa, and Amanda.



“I can safely, and with confidence, say that my wife is my best friend,” adds Player.



Although in his eighties, and true to his second nickname, ‘Mr Fitness’, Player may be in&nbsp; lockdown in his daughter’s home but he exercises diligently at the in-house gym.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="768" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_0977.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44494" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_0977.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_0977-300x400.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_0977-600x800.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_0977-225x300.jpg 225w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /><figcaption>Gary Player training at the gym in his daughter&#8217;s home; image supplied </figcaption></figure>



He also ventures into the forested area on his daughter’s property for long, peaceful walks in solitude. There is also a simulator at the house where Player can tee off as though on a golf course.



Including him and his wife, there are currently nine people in his daughter’s home, and although being in isolation, this experience has brought the family even closer, he says.



“All of us participate in joint activities that were never possible before due to everyone’s busy lifestyles. I love my large family,” attests the man blessed with 22 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He is yet to meet his month-old great-grandchild born to granddaughter Antonia and who is the newest addition to his large family.



When the lockdown ends, Player hopes to return to normal life “as soon as possible”. As a businessman with a “hectic, hectic” schedule, he is eager to get back to doing what he loves and says that being patient is not an easy feat.



Commenting on his own future, Player says he wishes to be remembered as a man who tried to contribute to society despite the mistakes he made.



“When I die and pass away, I want people to know that I tried my best in life. And that I am sorry for all the mistakes I made. Admittedly, we all make mistakes.



“I want to be remembered as a man who loved his fellow men,” says the legend who has also recently been key to integrating golf courses into local communities back home in South Africa.



“I am convinced there is a black girl or boy in South Africa today with tremendous athletic prowess, with the talent. If they can just be incentivized, then there is a chance,” Player told FORBES AFRICA for a story on his new initiatives in November 2018.



 – Brandon Nel, FORBES AFRICA contributor



Like what you are reading? There are more such profiles of newsmakers and enterprising thought leaders driving decision-making in FORBES AFRICA. Download a digital copy today!

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True Sport: Gary Player On Family, Isolation And The Covid-19 Aftermath

South Africa’s die-hard football fans bemoan the effect the lockdown is having on the game even as they attempt to keep the conversations going.



With sports events taking a big knock from coronavirus lockdowns globally, the venues and stadiums staging them have closed doors, and no one knows when the stars will come out to play again.



It is heartening though that in some places, local sporting groups, especially die-hard football fans, are keeping the spirit alive in their own way.



Take Football Conversations, a company founded by football fanatic Bandile Roro in 2017 and that is also airing as an eponymous show on Soweto TV.



Along with Tiisetso Mofokeng, the company’s CEO, Roro says the entire football community is in shock as they face an uncertain future.



“Football is about the moments, the comebacks and settling scores and when teams don’t have the opportunity to right yesterday’s wrongs today, then it becomes a problem not only for the football teams, but for the fans as well,” adds Mofokeng.



He says this particular anecdote does not only apply to the 90 minutes on the pitch but also to the information and content Football Conversations beams to the public on television.



“An episode that we air the week before, builds up a hunger and desire for a little bit more the following week and when we don’t get that opportunity to air, that’s how one sees how the pandemic poses a problem,” he says.



The lockdown has affected filming as their shows are usually shot in multiple locations to give every episode a different feel.



But the countrywide infections and deaths have stalled all such ambitions.



“This throws the question of morality; how is content creation important when people’s lives are at stake and that is something we had to understand, but also, on the other side of the coin, Football Conversations creates content as escapism at this time of uncertainty,” says Mofokeng.



“Football Conversations endorses the directive from the president,” adds Roro. “We do believe that this particular period will flatten the curve with fewer new infections and the sooner we adhere to it, the sooner we can return to our normal lives.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The company had signed a procurement contract with a private entity prior to the lockdown, but things are on standstill for now.



Hopeful that the Covid-19 infection rate will slow and the lockdown will be lifted, the duo are now planning their next road trips and a new show, Off Pitch Goals, on players and their businesses.



“We also produce podcasts on Spotify and YouTube to engage with our fans just to keep soccer discussions afloat,” says Roro.



The game may have been affected, but the goals stay the same.

Bandile Roro and Tiisetso Mofokeng at Orlando Stadium, Johannesburg

Alive And Not Kicking: ‘Missing The Great Moments In Football’

Toplines:&nbsp;After a slew of calls to postpone due to the risks of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, Japan and the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday announced it would delay the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics until 2021, making it the first time the Games have been moved outside of World War I and II.



<ul><li>Japan&#8217;s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he had agreed with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to delay the world&#8217;s biggest sporting event until next year. &#8220;I proposed to postpone for about a year and IOC president Thomas Bach responded with 100% agreement,&#8221; Abe said.</li><li>Speculation that the Olympics would be postponed escalated on Monday after Abe <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/03/23/japans-prime-minister-hints-olympics-will-be-postponed-due-to-coronavirus/#398acfa01af7">said</a>, “If it is difficult to hold the games in such a way, we have to decide to postpone them, giving top priority to the well-being of the athletes.”</li><li>Senior IOC member Dick Pound <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/03/23/report-tokyo-olympics-postponed-due-to-coronavirus-ioc-member-says/#4090faa32a6c">told USA Today</a> that “On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided&#8230; The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.”</li><li>It&#8217;s a move that was widely expected given <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/cartercoudriet/2020/03/19/covid-19-coronavirus-cancellation-tracker/#23577b7452b2">the hundreds of conferences, festivals and sporting events</a> affected by the pandemic across the globe, as well as <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/japans-abe-faces-mounting-anger-over-school-closures-lack-of-virus-testing/2020/02/28/ddd3ca58-59e0-11ea-8efd-0f904bdd8057_story.html" target="_blank">mounting criticism</a> levied at the IOC and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by players and fans, the latter of which voted overwhelmingly in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/03/16/report-japanese-polls-say-tokyo-olympics-should-be-postponed-due-to-coronavirus/#208123926bfb">a public poll conducted by Kyodo News</a> to delay the Games.</li><li>Much of the criticism wasn&#8217;t focused on the possible safety of the event itself, which was set to begin on July 24 until August 9, but the risk to athletes presently as they attempted to train for the Games while adhering to lockdowns and social distancing practices in their home countries.</li></ul>



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<ul><li>On March 18, the IOC held a conference call with 200 athlete representatives that caused further ire, with Spanish Olympic Committee president Alejandro Blanco saying there would be unfair competition given the training gym shut downs in certain countries, and U.S. table tennis player Han Xiao saying, &#8220;Regardless of their intentions, their first priority is not the public health aspect of it,&#8221; <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/sports/olympics/olympics-coronavirus-athletes-training.html" target="_blank">according to the New York Times</a>. </li></ul>



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">I’ve given this a lot of thought, and over the past few days my perspective has changed. I was voted to represent and protect athletes. As an IOCAC member, 6x Olympian and Medical doctor in training on the front lines in ER up until this week,these are my thoughts on <a href="https://twitter.com/Olympics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Olympics</a> : <a href="https://t.co/vrvfsQZ1GO">pic.twitter.com/vrvfsQZ1GO</a>&mdash; Hayley Wickenheiser (@wick_22) <a href="https://twitter.com/wick_22/status/1239985862819155970?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 17, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<ul><li>Adding fuel to the fire this month: Kozo Tashima,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2020/03/17/vice-chairman-of-japans-olympic-committee-tests-positive-for-coronavirus/#34c327a26140">the vice chairman of Japan&#8217;s Olympic Committee</a>&nbsp;and the head of the Japan Football Association, tested positive for the coronavirus following trips to Europe and the U.S., Greece’s Olympic committee&nbsp;<a href="https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/28870377/fans-barred-tokyo-2020-torch-lighting-ceremony-due-coronavrius" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">barred fans</a>&nbsp;from attending the traditional torch lighting ceremony and Canada&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/canada-australia-olympics-tokyo-2020-games-postponed-coronavirus-outbreak-1493699" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pulled out</a>&nbsp;of the Games this past weekend.</li></ul>



Crucial Quote:&nbsp;In late February,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/02/28/report-japan-has-no-backup-plan-if-olympic-games-get-derailed-by-coronavirus/#1381731562b1">a senior official told Reuters</a>&nbsp;that Japan essentially had no backup plan, saying &#8220;We are not even thinking of when or in what contingency we might decide things. There is no thought of change at all in my mind.&#8221;



Big Number:&nbsp;$12.6 billion to $25.2 billion. That&#8217;s the estimated investment the city of Tokyo has made in the event and will have to swallow during a delay before recouping any revenue from the Summer Olympics,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbssports.com/olympics/news/tokyo-olympics-decision-on-cancellation-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-will-be-made-by-may/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to CBS</a>. Sponsors additionally will take a financial blow, though, one of its biggest broadcasters,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/d059a1fbb8d7de95794e0e0c44928043" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Discovery Inc., told investors in February</a>&nbsp;that it was insured against a cancellation and that it wouldn&#8217;t hit the company particularly hard. NBCUniversal as well assured investors it had insurance, but it also would lose profit from the already $1.25 billion it&#8217;s sold in advertising, signing a $7.7 billion U.S. broadcasting deal for the Games until 2032,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/business/media/nbc-olympics-coronavirus.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to the New York Times</a>.&nbsp;The Olympics is the largest spectator event affected by the global coronavirus pandemic, with the 2016 Games in Brazil&nbsp;<a href="https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/Games/Summer-Games/Games-Rio-2016-Olympic-Games/Media-Guide-for-Rio-2016/IOC-Marketing-Report-Rio-2016.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">selling 6.2 million tickets</a>.



Key Background:&nbsp;<a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According to Johns Hopkins University</a>, there are more than 392,000 total confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 17,000 deaths worldwide. In Japan in particular, there are 1,140 cases with 42 confirmed deaths.



Tangent: The Olympic Games are among the athletic world’s most storied events. <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.penn.museum/sites/olympics/olympicorigins.shtml" target="_blank">First held</a> in 776 BCE, the Games were revived in the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.olympic.org/athens-1896" target="_blank">modern era</a> in 1896, when the Games were held in Athens, Greece. The 1916 Games <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.olympic.org/antwerp-1920" target="_blank">were cancelled</a> because of World War I, as were the 1940 and 1944 Games <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.olympic.org/london-1948" target="_blank">due to World War II</a>.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/">Matt Perez</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/innovation">Innovation</a>

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