Roger Federer Joins 2 Other Athletes As He Officially Becomes Billionaire

Roger Federer has just joined an elite group, becoming one of just three athletes to become a billionaire. When people dream of being a professional athlete, they often think of scoring the winner in the FA Cup final or winning the biggest tournaments and becoming the best player in the world. What many don’t think of, however, is the lucrative financial side that comes with that.

It is obvious that most top-level athletes are millionaires, but only three have managed to cross the billion-dollar mark, and Roger Federer is one of those.

Roger Federer’s Tennis Career

He retired as one of the most successful players of all time

Federer is a tennis icon and one of the most successful players of all time. He grew up in Basel, Switzerland and in 1998 he made his ATP debut at the Swiss Open. He lost to world number 88 Lucas Arnold Ker. However, this would just be the start of a long and successful career for Federer.

He broke out in 1999, entering the top 100-ranked tennis players for the first time, becoming the youngest to do it at 18 years and four months. He won his first Grand Slam title in 2003, defeating Mark Philippoussis in the final. From there, the dominance started. In 2004, he became the first person of the 2000s to win three Grand Slam singles titles, becoming world number one for the first time in his career, and he finished the year with a record of 74-6.

In 2006, he was at the peak of his powers. He won 12 singles titles, and won three out of the four Grand Slams, losing the final of the French Open to Rafael Nadal. He was the first man to reach all four finals since 1969. In 2009, he finally completed the career Grand Slam, beating Robin Soderling to capture his first title at Roland Garros.

He dominated all the way until his retirement in 2022. He retired with over 100 titles, with 20 of those being Grand Slam titles. He was also the only player during the Open Era to be number one for four consecutive years. He is an undisputed great of tennis, and will definitely go down as one of the best to ever do it.

Roger Federer’s Finances & Net Worth

He is reportedly now worth a staggering $1.3bn

Overall, he earned over $130 million in prize money during his 24-year career, with the rest of the money coming from sponsorships and investments. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Federer is worth a staggering $1.3 billion. He owns a 3% share in Swiss shoe company On, which specialises in running shoes and sportswear. They are worth around $17 billion, and make up around half a billion of Federer’s net worth.

He also has a number of long-standing relationships with Swiss brands, including luxury watchmaker Rolex, investment bank UBS Group, and chocolate maker Lindt. Federer has also founded some of his own companies, including Team8, a management company, and Format A AG, an investment firm.

Federer has also had a number of lucrative sponsorship deals over the course of his career, most notably a $300 million deal with Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo. These deals and investments, as well as the low tax rate in Switzerland, have meant that Federer has comfortably crossed the $1 billion threshold, but he isn’t the only athlete to achieve this.

2 Other Billionaire Athletes

Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan crossed the $1 billion mark in 2016, 13 years after he retired from professional basketball. Jordan is a six-time NBA Champion, a five-time MVP, and is known for his time at Chicago Bulls, who retired the number 23 in his honour. He is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, but off the court he became a global sensation and a cultural icon.

A big part of that is his deal with Nike, which recently got a film adaptation. Jordan has made over $1 billion since the deal in 1984, with the shoe brand being one of the biggest worldwide. The deal helped both Jordan and Nike become iconic, and the deal has worked out very well for both parties in the 40 years since.

Outside of Nike, Jordan had a controlling stake in NBA team Charlotte Hornets, and while things didn’t go well under his ownership, he sold his stake in the club for $3 billion. He bought the team for $180 million in 2010, so it was definitely a smart investment. He has also made some other smart investments, such as becoming a co-owner of a NASCAR team and joining DraftKings, a sports betting company. Like Federer, his investments and sponsorship deals make him one of the richest celebrities of all time, as he is valued at $3.5 billion.

Tiger Woods

Like the other two names on this list, Tiger Woods became the face of his sport. He has won 15 Major championships and 82 PGA Tour events, the joint most of all time. He is one of six golfers to achieve the career Grand Slam, and he was the youngest to do it, completing the achievement at just 24. He is also the highest-earner in PGA Tour history, winning $121 million in prize money.

Like Jordan, he has a long list of sponsors, with one of the main ones being Nike. In 2000, he signed a five-year, $105 million contract with Nike, which was the largest contract signed by a professional athlete at the time. Some of his other sponsors include 2K, a sports gaming company, Rolex, Monster Energy, and Bridgestone, a golf equipment company.

He has also made a number of investments, including Nexxus, a luxury property company, and TMRW Sports, a sports technology company founded by Woods and fellow golfer and Grand Slam winner Rory McIlroy. In 2022, Forbes revealed that Tiger Woods’ net worth had surpassed $1 billion, making him the second active athlete to do so since Jordan.

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