A few years ago it was the Hand-Egg player Peyton Manning. (I'm a fan of American Football, but the name irritates me!)

If you ignore product endorsements etc (so it is just salary and prizes), I suspect the highest paid will still be the F1 driver Kimi Raikonnen - even tho he is having a year off (rumours claim he is being paid 'just' 20 million Euros next year, as opposed to 50 million for the last couple of years).