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Lambe’s top of sporting rich list

Reggie Lambe is Bermuda’s highest paid athlete with the footballer reportedly making more than $400,000 per year, according to ESPN The Magazine.Lambe leads the way for local athletes in the survey done for each country in the world based upon annual salary.The Ipswich Town player, who is currently on loan with League One side Bristol Rovers having moved to the West Country in March, was reportedly paid $480,000 last year.At the time of his move, Rovers caretaker-boss Stuart Campbell called Lambe ‘an exciting prospect’.Lambe though pales in comparison to Alex Rodrigues of the US and boxer Manny Pacquaio who leads the way with a whopping $32m a year, followed by Fernando Alonso (22.7m).Brazil (Felipe Massa, F1), Argentina (Carlos Tevez, Football), England (Lewis hamilton, F1), Germany (Dirk Nowitzki, NBA), Japan (Ichiro Suzuki, Baseball), Italy (Valentino Rossi, GP), and Australia (Andrew Bogut, NBA) all have high profile athletes topping their lists.Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan all have cricketers leading their respective tables.Meanwhile, Barcelona and Real Madrid have overtaken the New York Yankees as the best-paid global sports teams, according to a British study.The review published Wednesday showed annual average pay during the 2009-10 season was $7.9 million at Barcelona and $7.4 million at Real Madrid.The Yankees are paying their players an average of $6.8 million this season. The team last year topped the review which is compiled by www.sportingintelligence.com and is being published by ESPN The Magazine.The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic occupy the fourth and fifth spots, followed by English Premier League champion Chelsea.Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal also are among the 30 best-paid teams, making the Premier League the richest soccer league in the world. In the top 30, there are 10 NBA teams and eight MLB clubs.“We’ve know for years that the biggest bucks have been in American basketball and baseball but the rise and rise in wages among the elite of European football continues, closing that gap,” said Nick Harris, the report’s author.That, however, could change with new regulations from the Union of European Football Associations that starting next season will force clubs to stop spending more than they earn.“Financial Fair Play regulations may act as a brake on this inflation in football pay in a few years’ time, but for now the big guns in Europe are still splashing out,” Harris said.The players’ rankings based on “Annual Salary” represents only base salary from the most recently completed season or calendar year from each sport, and excludes any other source of compensation, unless otherwise noted.In countries where official salary figures were unavailable, the magazine said they ‘estimated the number based on information from multiple sources, including leagues, agents, consulates, embassies, sports federations, cultural centers and the UN.