Mikko Koivu Is The Highest Paid Finnish Athlete

For all the acclaims Mikko Koivu gets or doesn't (or gets for the wrong reasons), "highest paid Finnish athlete" is one I wouldn't have thought about.

Minnesota Wild captain Mikko Koivu (photo from Zimbio)

As part of ESPN the Magazine's "money issue" which comes with Floyd "Money" Mayweather's May 5th fight against Miguel Cotto, the Worldwide Leader listed the highest paid athlete in more than 200 countries. The Wild forward tops Finland with $7.2M in 2011-2012 as part of his 7 year, $47.25M contract signed in 2010.

It's a paltry figure compared to Mayweather's American high of $40 million for a pair of fights - hell, Koivu wasn't even the highest-paid player on his line this season - but he is up there for a reason.

Minnesota's captain is one of six hockey players to lead their country in money made with Thomas Vanek (Austria), Craig Adams (Brunei), Nik Antropov (Kazakhstan), Ilya Bryzgalov (Russia) and Zdeno Chara (Slovakia) being the others. Despite being a hockey hotbed, Canada's highest paid athlete is Jason Bay of the New York Mets, who took home $18.125M last season.

(s/t Ben Goessling)