...sports personalities or authors?

This is something I found myself discussing with my colleagues earlier this week and the answer to be honest surprised me.

Before I continue I have to be clear that the figures I sourced on-line can be taken with only a modicum of accuracy.  For example:

Terry Pratchett, the creator of the Disc world, Death and Binky among other amazing characters, on one site is reported as having a personal wealth of $40 million on another the figure is $65 million.  That's over a 50% increase from one site to the next, quite a staggering difference.

So back to the question.  It started, as a lot of things do with talk in my office about football, no not the American version proper football, and how much certain premier league players earn.

What developed from there was a comparison with stars in other sports and before long one of us had turned to the internet to see who earns what in the sports world.

Before looking have a guess yourself, who is the top earning sportsman?

The answer is Ion Tiria.  Who? Yep I've never heard of him either. Apparently he was quite a good tennis and ice hokey player way back before I was born and is currently worth a cool $2 billion.

Second up is a certain Michael Jordan who is reportedly worth $1 billion.



Third is Formula 1 mega star Michael Schumacher and my thoughts go out to him and his family.

Fourth on the list is Vince McMahon - who is, let's face it, a successful pantomime producer and has nothing to do with sports what-so-ever.  So I'm scratching him from list as I do not recognise his validity to be on the list in the first place.

Fifth on the list? Arnold Palmer, venerable golfer and with a staggering $675 million.

Sixth on the list, and I'm including sixth because I booted Vince to the curb, is former NFL quarterback Roger Staubach with a worth of $600 million.

So there you have it the top earning sportsman and one thing I would say is that several of them have earned a large part of their amassed wealth as entrepreneurs.

So how about the authors?

Well there are no prizes for guessing who is sitting top of the list.

Author of the Harry Potter books herself, J.K. Rowling with an estimated net worth of a cool $1 billion.

Sun Myung Moon was a Korean religious leader, businessman, and media mogul who had a net worth of $900 million before his death and is listed 2nd on the list.

3rd is creator of Garfield and Odie, Jim Davies, with a cool $800 million.


4th on the list is Candy Spelling widow of Aaron Spelling the famous TV producer.  I'd question her inclusion just because she wrote her autobiography.

J. R. R. Tolkien, a personal hero of mine, comes in 5th with an estate worth $500 million.

If I'm discounting Candy Spelling much like I did Vince McMahon then sixth on the list is Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian novelist, musician, and lyricist who has a net worth of $500 million.

So right at the top there's not much difference in the figures which surprised me a little. What does happen though is that the authors list gets 'poorer' more rapidly. I say poorer I should probably just say less wealthy.

Ronaldo, he with the precocious talent at football, is at #50 on the sports star rich list with a personal wealth of $150 million.

That position on the authors list is occupied by Ken Follet with a worth of $45 million.

I hope you found this interesting, I certainly did and would love to earn even a fraction of what some of the authors have managed.

Phil