The Indian cricket captain on Saturday became the only Indian athlete to rank among the top 100 highest paid sportspersons released by Forbes Magazine. Making a jump of more than 30 spots from last year, Kohli secured 66th place on the Forbes list. Last year, he ranked 100th.
As per the magazine estimates, Kolhi bagged a total of $26 million last year – out of which $24 million was obtained from his brand endorsements for companies like Audi and Puma, and $2 million was gained from his salary and for wins.
Netizens, who recently made memes on the cricketer acting like a dinosaur in an Instagram video, took to social media to congratulate and shower love on their cricket captain.
Kohli has been included in the list since 2017 – ranking 89th, 83rd, 100th and now 66th position in the consecutive years.
The Indian cricketer became the fastest batsman to score 11,000 runs in One Day International (ODI) matches earlier in January. He is regarded as one of the best batsmen in the world, in the same league as the "god of cricket" Sachin Tendulkar.
This year, Swiss tennis champion Roger Federer topped this year’s Forbes list; he is estimated to have earned of $106.3 million in the past one year.
Other international sports personalities to make it onto the list were football stars Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, among many others.