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Billionaire Ronaldo tops Forbes footballer rich list again | The Express Tribune

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Billionaire Ronaldo tops Forbes footballer rich list again | The Express Tribune


Portuguese star continues to dominate global earnings as Messi, Benzema, and Haaland trail behind

Al-Nassr’s Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list. PHOTO: AFP


PARIS:

Portugal great Cristiano Ronaldo once again topped the Forbes highest-paid footballers list for the 2025-26 season, as one of three members of the top 10 plying their trade in Saudi Arabia.

It is the sixth time in the last decade that Ronaldo has topped the Forbes list and comes just over a week after Bloomberg announced that the 40-year-old had become football’s first billionaire.

With on- and off-field earnings of an estimated $280 million, Al Nassr’s Ronaldo will earn more than double that of second-placed rival Lionel Messi, whose $130 million estimate is made up of more off-field earnings than those from playing for his US club Inter Miami.

Next up is French former Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema, who earns $104 million a year thanks to his huge contract at Saudis Al Ittihad.

The third member of the top 10 playing in Saudi Arabia is Senegalese forward Sadio Mane, a teammate of Ronaldo’s who earns an estimated $54 million in eighth.

The number of players from Saudi clubs in the top 10 compared to a year ago has dropped by one as Brazil’s Neymar left Al Hilal in January to return to his boyhood club, Santos in Sao Paulo.

He had been third on the list with $110 million in 2024-25 but now apparently earns a paltry $38 million, mostly from off-field contracts.

Despite the power and wealth of the English Premier League — whose clubs spent a record £2.6 billion ($3.5 billion) on transfers in the summer window — only two players from that competition make the top 10 with Manchester City’s Erling Haaland fifth and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah seventh.

But it is Spain’s La Liga that has the most representatives in the top 10, including three Real Madrid players in Kylian Mbappe (fourth), Vinicius Jr (sixth) and Jude Bellingham (ninth).

While the fourth player from Spain is Barcelona’s teenage starlet Lamine Yamal, who is 10th with $43 million.

“Combined, the world’s ten highest-paid soccer players are set to earn an estimated $945 million during the 2025-26 campaign,” Forbes said in a statement.



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NBA veteran Gallinari retires from basketball

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NBA veteran Gallinari retires from basketball


Longtime NBA forward Danilo Gallinari announced his retirement from basketball Tuesday morning.

Gallinari, 37, spent 16 years in the NBA, playing in 14 seasons — and missing two others with torn ACLs — for several teams, beginning with the New York Knicks, who selected him sixth overall in the 2008 draft.

One of 299 players, per the Elias Sports Bureau, to have played at least 14 NBA seasons, Gallinari also played for the Denver Nuggets, LA Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics (no games logged), Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks.

The son of Vittorio Gallinari — a teammate and roommate of longtime NBA head coach Mike D’Antoni while the two were members of Olimpia Milano in the 1970s and ’80s — Gallinari is the second-highest-drafted Italian player ever, behind former No. 1 selection Andrea Bargnani, and his 11,607 points is the most of any Italian player in NBA history.

He was best known for his time with the Knicks, where he was the fresh-faced on-court part of their rebuilding project ahead of the star-studded 2010 free agency class while D’Antoni was the head coach, and with the Nuggets, where he arrived as part of the massive trade that brought Carmelo Anthony to New York in 2011.

It was in Denver that Gallinari was part of a 57-win Nuggets team in 2012-13 that was made up of several of the players who came with him as part of that Anthony trade and that appeared ready to make a run in the Western Conference playoffs when Gallinari tore his ACL late in that regular season.

Injuries were, unfortunately, a major storyline of Gallinari’s career, as he missed at least 10 games in all but one of his NBA seasons. He not only missed two entire seasons — 2013-14 and 2022-23 — to ACL tears but also missed the vast majority of his rookie year with a back injury.

But when he was on the court, Gallinari was a tremendously skilled offensive player — particularly given that he was 6-foot-10. His 1,456 3-pointers is the sixth most by any player in NBA history who is at least that tall. In February 2021, while playing with the Hawks, he became one of eight players in league history to hit at least 10 3-pointers while coming off the bench.

That season with Atlanta marked the only time Gallinari would make it as far as the NBA’s conference finals in his 14-year career, although he capped off his professional career by winning the Puerto Rican league title, and winning the championship series MVP award, with Vaqueros de Bayamon this past summer.

Gallinari’s last game in the NBA was Game 6 of the Bucks’ first-round loss to the Indiana Pacers in the 2024 NBA playoffs.



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Clase, Ortiz face May trial in pitch-rigging scandal

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Clase, Ortiz face May trial in pitch-rigging scandal


NEW YORK — Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz are facing a May trial on federal charges that they took bribes to help gamblers betting on their pitches.

U.S. District Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto on Tuesday said jury selection would tentatively begin May 4 in Brooklyn federal court, with the trial opening the following week or sooner.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Sherman told the judge at the brief hearing that prosecutors anticipate the trial could last two weeks.

He said that both sides have been in discussions since the pitchers were arrested last month but that they have not yet talked about a possible plea deal in the case to avoid trial.

Matsumoto initially proposed a February trial date, but prosecutors and defense lawyers pushed for a spring start.

Sherman said prosecutors began providing defense lawyers with evidence and other materials this week in anticipation of a trial, including hundreds of gigabytes of files pulled from a number of electronic devices.

Clase, Ortiz and their lawyers declined to comment outside the courtroom. They’re due back in court Jan. 15.

The two have been out on bail since pleading not guilty last month to wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery.

According to prosecutors, the two accepted thousands of dollars in bribes to help two unnamed gamblers in their native Dominican Republic win at least $460,000 on bets placed on the speed and outcome of their pitches.

The prosecutors allege that Clase, the Guardians’ star closer, began providing the bettors with information about his pitches in 2023 and then recruited Ortiz into the scheme earlier this year.

Lawyers for the men have denied the charges. Ortiz’s lawyer has maintained that payments between his client and individuals in the Dominican Republic were for legal activities, not payoffs.

Clase, 27, is a three-time All-Star and two-time American League Reliever of the Year who is on the fourth season of a $20 million, five-year contract.

Ortiz, 26, earned a $782,600 salary this year as a starting pitcher for Cleveland.

The two pitchers have been on nondisciplinary paid leave since July, when MLB began investigating what it said was unusually high in-game betting activity when they pitched.

The Guardians open spring training in February. The team’s home opener is April 3.



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Barcelona confirm Bonmatí out for five months after surgery

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Barcelona confirm Bonmatí out for five months after surgery


Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmatí will be out for five months after undergoing surgery on a broken leg on Tuesday, the Catalan club have confirmed.

Bonmatí, 27, fractured her fibula in Spain training over the weekend and returned to Barcelona immediately to begin her recovery.

“Bonmatí has undergone successful surgery on a fractured fibula in her left leg,” Barça announced in a short statement on Tuesday.

“The procedure was performed by Dr. Antoni Dalmau at Hospital Barcelona under the supervision of the club’s medical services. The expected recovery time is around five months.”

The three-time Ballon d’Or winner picked up the injury on Sunday as Spain prepared for Tuesday’s UEFA Women’s Nations League final second leg against Germany.

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She had initially wanted to stay with the Spain camp to support the team in their quest to retain the trophy, but was advised to return to Barcelona for treatment.

On Friday, she had played in the first leg in Germany, which ended in a goalless draw.

Bonmatí will now miss the majority of what remains of the club season, although there is a chance she could return for the run in.

The Champions League final, should Barça get there, is scheduled to take place in Oslo on May 22, with the final round of Liga F matches not set to take place until a week later.

The loss of Bonmatí complicates Barça’s options in the middle park, especially in the short-term, with both Patri Guijarro and Kika Nazareth also unlikely to feature again this calendar year due to injuries.

In the meantime, Laia Aleixandri will continue to push up from defence alongside Alexia Putellas, with youngsters Vicky López, Sydney Schertenleib and Clara Serrajordi set to compete for the final place in the middle of the park.



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