Ion Tiriac Net Worth - Pulptastic
Andrew Mccoy
Published Apr 10, 2026
Richest Athlete in the World?
Ion Tiriac, born in Romania in May 1939, was a successful tennis player, winning the Bavarian International Tennis Championships in 1970 and the French Open in doubles in the same year. He also represented Romania in international competition and won Gold medals in singles and mixed doubles at the 1965 Budapest Summer Universiade. After retiring, Tiriac became a coach for superstars such as Boris Becker, Mary Joe Fernández, Guillermo Vilas, Marat Safin, Steffi Graf, and Goran Ivanišević.
Working with Becker exposed Ion to western business practices and in 1990 he founded his own bank back in Romania called Banca Tiriac, the first privately owned bank in post-communist Romania. He then went on to launch retail businesses, auto dealerships, an airline, and an insurance company. Today his empire includes Tiriac Holdings, TiriacAIR, HVB Tiriac Bank, Allianz-Tiriac Asigurari Romania, TiriacAuto, Tiriac Leasing, and Tir Travel. Tiriac owns the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open and was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2013.
Tiriac had never earned more than a few million dollars as a professional athlete but within two years of the Berlin Wall falling, he was worth over $100 million. By 2000 he was worth $500 million, and in 2007, Forbes recognized him as the 840th richest person in the world with a net worth of $1 billion. However, by 2020, his fortune had dropped nearly in half to $1.2 billion while Michael Jordan’s net worth increased to $2.2 billion by April 2020, allowing MJ to earn the title of richest athlete in the world.
