Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe move over! Meet the Roman athlete who’s ‘£15BILLION fortune’ eclipses the wealth of football’s elite at the top of 2023’s sports rich list

• Cristiano Ronaldo topped the athletes’ rich list after his move to Al-Nassr
• An Ancient Roman athlete took home what is believed to be an incredible £625million a year over his charioteering career
• Former PSG team-mates Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe also feature in the top three highest paid athletes in the last year

It comes as no surprise to sports fans now when athletes earn an eye-watering amount of money each year.

Whether that be in the form of their salary, sponsorships or a combination of the both some of football’s top stars really are raking in the cash.

The likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe have featured on the Forbes Top Ten highest paid athletes list.

But all of their earnings pale in comparison to one person in particular, an ancient Roman chariot racer who would have, in today’s money, racked up an incredible £15billion in career earnings according to researchers.

Experts found details of Gaius Appuleius Diocles who was plucked from humble beginnings as a slave to become a champion charioteer in second century Rome.

Gaius Appuleius Diocles, a charioteer like Jack Huston in Ben-Hur (above), is considered to be the highest paid sportsman of all time

His earnings well eclipse that of even the highest paid athlete. With former Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo earning just £112million a year.

Despite making a move to Saudi Arabia last season, the majority of the Portuguese superstar’s money has come in off-the-field sponsorships.

Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi came in second on the highest paid list at £107million made last year in an even split between on-field and off-field earnings.

And after signing a bumper new deal with PSG a couple of years ago making him the highest paid player, Kylian Mbappe is third, earning £82million on the pitch but a comparatively low £16million off of it.

The immensely strong but illiterate charioteer, in comparison, pocketed a cool 35,863,120 sesterces in prize money during his career – the same as £625million a year in today’s terms. 

Historian Peter Struck from the University of Pennsylvania uncovered the figures scrawled by his fellow charioteers on a monument to the sportsman in Rome earlier this year.

The tribute to Diocles upon his retirement in 146 AD read: ’42 years, 7 months, and 23 days. Champion of all charioteers.’ It also listed in the currency of the day, sesterces, his total career prize money from the fierce races.

Charioteers had put their lives on the line with every race but were paid handsomely upon victory

Cristiano Ronaldo topped Forbes’ athlete rich list as the Al-Nassr forward makes £136million

Lionel Messi’s big money move to Inter Miami helped him pocket around £130million last year

Kylian Mbappe’s bumper contract with PSG has seen his on-field earnings rocket to £82million

Professor Struck, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, said: ‘The modern sporting spectacles we manage to stage — and on occasion be appalled by — pale by comparison to the common entertainments of Rome.

‘The Circus Maximus, the beating heart at the center of the empire, accommodated a quarter million people for weekly chariot races.

‘Drivers were drawn from the lower orders of society. They affiliated with teams supported by large businesses that invested heavily in training and upkeep of the horses and equipment.

‘The best drivers were made legends by poets who sung their exploits and graffiti artists who scrawled crude renderings of their faces on walls around the Mediterranean. They could also be made extraordinarily wealthy.’

As it is in modern day, ancient athletes also attracted the attention of sponsors and Diocles had businesses clamoring over each other to be associated with him. This served to add millions to his bank account over his career.

It is believed that Diocles’ career spanned 24 years and he was crowned the ‘champion of all charioteers’

The very best paid of these – in fact, the best paid athlete of all time – was a Lusitanian Spaniard named Gaius Appuleius Diocles, who had short stints with the Whites and Greens, before settling in for a long career with the Reds,’ Professor Struck wrote in historical magazine Laphams Quaterly.

‘Ovid recommended the reserve seating as a good place to pick up aristocratic women, and he advised letting your hand linger as you fluff her seat cushion.’

Professor Struck added: ‘Twenty-four years of winnings brought Diocles — likely an illiterate man whose signature move was the strong final dash — the staggering sum of 35,863,120 sesterces in prize money.

‘The figure is recorded in a monumental inscription erected in Rome by his fellow charioteers and admirers in 146, which hails him fulsomely on his retirement at the age of ”42 years, 7 months, and 23 days” as ”champion of all charioteers”.’

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