Virat Kohli Ranks Second In Asia's Highest-Paid Athletes, Find Out Who Tops The List

Virat Kohli is the lone Indian representative in the list of top 100 highest paid athletes from the around the globe but he came second in Asia.

Virat Kohli is one cricketer who has gone beyond the realms of the ordinary and has established himself as one of the leading batters in world cricket in contemporary times. Some have even started rating him as one of the all-time greats despite his career being far from over. Because of his several on-pitch cricket achievements, India's batting star is also the highest-paid athlete from India.

However, when it comes to the continent of Asia, even though Kohli is the lone Indian representative in the list of top 100 highest paid athletes from the around the globe and one of the two athletes from the most populous continent to feature in it, the former India captain came second in Asia.

Notably, Kohli was listed at the 61st place in this list put out by Sportico. It is pertinent to note that the highest-paid athletes mentioned in this report is for the year 2022. Kohli was beaten by Japan's Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka who bagged the 20th place in the list of the world's highest-paid athletes also becoming the highest paid athlete in Asia. Her salary/winnings were estimated at $1.2M in the year with Kohli's $2.9M actually much better than her but it is the brand endorsements where the cricketer trails the tennis star.



Osaka got $52M in 2022 through her endorsements. Kohli, on the other hand, received $31M through various brand endorsements that he signs up for. It is here that Osaka has thoroughly outplayed Kohli. Even though Osaka ranks 20th in the list, her ranking has actually seen a dip from 2021 when she was ranked 15. Kohli's ranking too has seen a marginal downfall with him having been ranked 59th in the 2021 highest earners list compared to 61 of 2022. The higest-paid athelte in the world in 2022, as mentioned in this list, was NBA star LeBron James.



As far as Kohli's cricketing assignment is concerned, he is currently with the Indian team on their tour of the Caribbean islands where they are playing an ODI series. The 34-year-old did not feature in India's Playing XI in the second ODI against West  Indies. The two teams will play the third and the final ODI of the series on August 1 with the series levelled at 1-1. As far as Osaka is concerned, she has been struggling with injuries and it is not clear when will the four-time Grand Slam champion make a return to competitive tennis.