Golden State Warriors’s Steph Curry. The point guard signed a $215 million deal with sports brand Under Armour back in 2013, and is the only athlete to have launched signature shoes with the brand.
The first golfer on our list is former number one Rory McIlroy, who penned a 10-year, $250 million deal with Nike in 2013 — the record for a British sportsperson.
Not to be outdone by his perennial rival Cristiano Ronaldo, football mega star Lionel Messi signed what is believed to be a similarly lucrative lifetime deal with Adidas in 2017.
As you will have noticed, there’s a trend when it comes to Nike, as they are by far the world’s largest sponsor of athletes. Like Jordan and Ronaldo, basketball icon LeBron James has also signed a lifetime deal with the sports giant.
Next up is football megastar Cristiano Ronaldo, who signed a $1 billion lifetime contract with Nike in 2016. While the Portuguese maestro has been contracted to the sports giant since 2003, he became just the third person to be awarded a lifetime contract with Nike.
The Michael Jordan and Nike partnership is one of the most famous and lucrative sponsorship deals of all time, let alone sports sponsorship deals.