Ranking of the richest Czech athletes: Satoranský is at the top

For the third time, basketball player Tomáš Satoranský tops the list of the most financially successful Czech athletes. Like last year and the year before, he left some domestic football and hockey players this year, but this time maybe for the last time, noted Forbes magazine, which compiled the list. The 2023 ranking will likely bring more changes than the one for 2022.

This year, Satoranský left the top American basketball league, the NBA, and six years later he will again sell his athletic qualities to Barcelona, ​​​​​​but as a result he will lose the top position on the list of the richest athletes. Six hockey players and three football players are behind him in the top ten this year.

Satoranský’s national team teammate Jan Veselý, who will also wear Barcelona’s basketball jersey,​​​​ ranks 14th with an income of 75 million crowns. In addition to male colleagues from ice and grass, tennis players Karolína Plíšková (68 million crowns) and Barbora Krejčíková (56 million crowns) are among the twenty-five richest.

In addition to royalties from contracts with their sports clubs, they also earn through sponsorship deals with big brands. This year, the Czech edition of Forbes magazine also took into account the compensation in the period from July 2021 to June 2022 when choosing the 25 best-paid athletes in the Czech Republic.

At the end of his NBA career, he changed three clubs, now he lives in Barcelona. With an income of 242 million crowns a year, he topped the list for the last time this year. In addition to basketball, he also contributed to this amount by partnering with Adidas clothing brands and Audi cars. Like some Czech hockey players, the best domestic basketball player limits sponsorship cooperation to a minimum and prefers to devote himself to children.

Hockey player Jakub Voráček is once again playing in the jersey of the Columbus Blue Jackets, where he once started in the NHL abroad. He has a contract signed for two more seasons. With an income of 181 million crowns, he is the highest paid Czech hockey player and the second richest athlete in the Czech Republic. Last year, he scored five goals in 79 games, where he collected 62 points – the vast majority thanks to assists.

The hockey player who plays for the Boston Bruins is one of the best scorers in the American NHL. He currently earns 170 million crowns. His contract in Boston will last another year, and the club wants to work with him for another eight years, which is the maximum. The contract extension should bring him an additional ten million dollars a year.

The highest paid Czech football player earns 148 million crowns. Patrik Schick is the best Czech striker who, thanks to his new contract with Bundesliga club Bayern Leverkusen, is likely to be even higher in the rankings. At the same time, Schick became the face of the phone manufacturer Vivo.

He earned 129 million crowns in the San Jose Sharks hockey jersey, but in March he signed a new contract for another eight years, which will earn him 65.1 million dollars (about 196 million crowns per year). The California team in Hertla is hoping to reverse its slump in results since the 2016 Stanley Cup Finals.

Palat has been a New Jersey Devils player since July. His previous team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, did not have enough funds to retain the Czech hockey player due to the salary cap system. At the new club, however, he will earn 30 million dollars over five years (145 million crowns per year). Today, with 126 million crowns, he is in sixth place on the list of the best paid athletes in the Czech Republic.

Seventh in the ranking with 113 million crowns per season is Jakub Vrána, who plays on the ice of the overseas Detroit Red Wings, where he scored 13 goals in 26 games. Next year, according to the contract, he will grow another half a million dollars. He should move higher to the next rank.

The London West Ham United midfielder has 112 million crowns in his account annually. He thus became the second highest paid football player in the Czech Republic. However, the captain of the Czech national football team was not lucky enough to play in the World Cup in Qatar this year, where the national team did not qualify.

He left his last hockey club Blackhawks with 95 million crowns. The Detroit Red Wings salary will now be sent to his account. However, this will give him 1.2 million dollars (29 million crowns) less than what he received with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Premier League footballer Matěj Vydra completed the top ten with 85 million crowns. However, his future involvement with Burley is now uncertain.