The Forbes list of most valuable sportspersons is out and Virat Kohli has made it to the top 10. Not just that, Brand Kohli is valued at $14.5m, a whopping one million above Argentina football star Lionel Messi.
Kohli is at no.7 while the Barcelona forward is at 9 with $13.5m.
Roger Federer takes the top spot with $37.3m and American basketball star Stephen Curry takes the last spot with $13.4m in the top 10 list.
Virat Kohli is the only Indian and only cricket personality to be featured in the top 10 athletes in terms of brand value. He has been lauded for the national team's overall performance in international cricket and shown great leadership skills having captained the young Indian side in all formats of the game.
1. Roger Federer $37.2m
2. LeBron James $33.4m
3. Usain Bolt $27m
4. Cristiano Ronaldo $21.5m
5. Phil Mickelson $19.6m
6. Tiger Woods $16.6m
7. Virat Kohli $14.5m
8. Rory McIlroy $13.6m
9. Lionel Messi $13.5m
10. Stephen Curry $13.4m
Kohli had recently slipped to the second spot in the ICC ODI batsmen rankings, but scored his 31st century in the first ODI in the ongoing series against New Zealand. He surpassed Ricky Ponting among batsmen with most ODI centuries, and is behind only to Sachin Tendulkar, who has 49 ODI tons to his credit.
