Zlatan among the highest paid performers

Forbes' list of the 100 highest paid performers offered no other Swedish names and only 16 women. 

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  Zlatan Ibrahimovic takes a hard look at his 10th Golden Ball award during the annual Football Gala at the Globe Arena in Stockholm in 2015. Andreas Eriksson/Bildbyran

• Zlatan lands at 100: In the annual list by Forbes that looks at the highest paid performers and their earnings over the year, Swedish soccer sensation, Zlatan, comes in at number 100.

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  Barcelona, Spain Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words, although the expression on Swedish forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s face would seem to convey just a couple of words, most likely unprintable in any newspaper. Ibrahimovic was less than happy with a yellow card referee Iturralde Gonzalez gave him during a Spanish La Liga match Dec. 12, 2009 against Espanyol. Bildbyran photo

• While he was beaten by Brittany Spears, who placed at number 89, the Forbes list shows that there is still a huge disparity between male and female performers when it comes to the money they earn. The hip hop artist Sean ”Diddy”Combs came in at the top followed by Beyoncé and the author J.K. Rowling.

• Combining all earnings together, the highest paid performers brought in SEK 43 billion (a little over $5 billion). To put that into a Swedish perspective, all tax payers in Sweden received one tenth of that or 4.3 billion in annual tax refunds in 2017.