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The 100 most famous athletes in the world - ESPN (1 Viewer)

NewlyRetired

NewlyRetired

Footballguy
Here is the methodology they used.

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/worldfame100/espn-world-fame-100-top-ranking-athletes#S1__Methodology

Here is the list

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/worldfame100/espn-world-fame-100-top-ranking-athletes

=================

one thing that jumps out at me is how little baseball and football are represented here.  Only 2 football players in the top 50 and no MLB players on the list.

Here is an article that discusses the NFL issues with cracking the foreign conscience

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/19472417/nfl-dominates-fan-audience-united-states-lacks-widespread-appeal-international-stage

 
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NewlyRetired said:
Here is the methodology they used.

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/worldfame100/espn-world-fame-100-top-ranking-athletes#S1__Methodology

Here is the list

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/worldfame100/espn-world-fame-100-top-ranking-athletes

=================

one thing that jumps out at me is how little baseball and football are represented here.  Only 2 football players and no MLB players on the list.

Here is an article that discusses the NFL issues with cracking the foreign conscience

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/19472417/nfl-dominates-fan-audience-united-states-lacks-widespread-appeal-international-stage
Click to expand...
There's 8 NFL players:

21. Tom Brady

47. Cam Newton

52. Drew Brees

55. Russell Wilson

56. Aaron Rodgers

60. Eli Manning

64. Odell Beckham

74. JJ Watt

Not sure how Brees is higher than Beckham. And totally agree about baseball players. Was really surprised not to see Trout or Harper on there. Lots of soccer, basketball, and golf guys on there.

 
MattFancy said:
And totally agree about baseball players. Was really surprised not to see Trout or Harper on there. Lots of soccer, basketball, and golf guys on there.
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I think baseball is at an all time low for player recognition right now among-st the general populace. 

While sports fans will know who Trout and Harper are, you put them in front of 100 average Americans with no indication who they are and I think the number who would be able to name them is very low.

 
So by sport:

Soccer: 38

Basketball: 13

Golf: 11

Tennis: 10

Football: 8

Auto Racing: 4

Cricket: 4

MMA: 3

Boxing: 2

Gymnastics: 2

Swimming: 2

Badminton/Table Tennis/Track and Field: 1 each

 
NewlyRetired said:
I think baseball is at an all time low for player recognition right now among-st the general populace. 

While sports fans will know who Trout and Harper are, you put them in front of 100 average Americans with no indication who they are and I think the number who would be able to name them is very low.
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Possibly, but I think more people would be able to identify Trout and Harper over some random Table Tennis or Badminton star. And I know we're talking about the entire World, but I would think Harper/Trout would have some more recognition than a few on this list.

 
MattFancy said:
Possibly, but I think more people would be able to identify Trout and Harper over some random Table Tennis or Badminton star. And I know we're talking about the entire World, but I would think Harper/Trout would have some more recognition than a few on this list.
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I would have thought so too.  I am sure if the formula was adjusted, it might be more favorable to baseball players.  The formula is fairly arbitrary but seems generally fair.

 
NewlyRetired said:
I would have thought so too.  I am sure if the formula was adjusted, it might be more favorable to baseball players.  The formula is fairly arbitrary but seems generally fair.
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What's weird is when looking at the 2016 list, baseball had 8 players listed:

71.Harper

73. Trout

78. Ortiz

85. Cano

88. Miggy

89. Tanaka

93. Pujols

100. Kemp

I understand Ortiz, Kemp, and even Tanaka falling off the list, but how do Harper and Trout go from being in the Top 75 to not even on the list? Those are 2 biggest stars in the game.

Also, weird not to see Gronk on this list as well.

 
I looked at last years list and it had 8 baseball players on it.  The highest was Harper at 71.  Ortiz retired, removing him from list.  The rest just got replaced it looks like.

 
MattFancy said:
So by sport:

Soccer: 38

Basketball: 13

Golf: 11

Tennis: 10

Football: 8

Auto Racing: 4

Cricket: 4

MMA: 3

Boxing: 2

Gymnastics: 2

Swimming: 2

Badminton/Table Tennis/Track and Field: 1 each
Click to expand...
Pretty bad that badminton has an entry in the top 100 but NHL has zero.

 
NewlyRetired said:
The formula is fairly arbitrary but seems generally fair.
Click to expand...
Not sure I'd say fair, but it's at least measurable.

There are nearly 2.5 billion Chinese, Indians, and Africans without internet access and social media followers is a key metric in their rankings. Also, using endorsement dollars favors athletes in rich countries. For example, no way I believe JJ Watt is one of the 100 most famous athletes in the world.

 
I bet outside of the kids that are really into baseball or hockey, nobody knows any non-Detroit Tiger baseball players and I don't think they could name any hockey players, even if they were on the Wings. Baseball and hockey players aren't household names with the youth around here. Football and especially basketball are huge. After that, it's soccer. Tons of kids with Messi, FCB, Ronaldo,PSG and Mexico soccer apparel. 

 
Ned Ryerson said:
You must be a tremendous soccer fan.  I think I have heard of MAYBE 10 of soccer players on the.
Click to expand...
I mean, the guys in the back-half of the list are still immensely famous.  Hell, 3 of the last 4 on this list are arguably the best goalkeeper in the world (Manuel Neuer), the "next big thing' Brazilian wunderkind (Gabriel Jesus), and the world's active leader in World Cup goals - T-8th all time (Thomas Muller).  Mohamed Salah at #100 is a bit of a surprise though.

 
Godsbrother said:
Big year for badminton and table tennis I guess...
Click to expand...
I'm guessing both of those sports are big in China or India (or both). If Canada can get their population up to about 1 billion - only 965 million to go! - then hockey players might gain some ground.

 
Ilov80s said:
I bet outside of the kids that are really into baseball or hockey, nobody knows any non-Detroit Tiger baseball players and I don't think they could name any hockey players, even if they were on the Wings. Baseball and hockey players aren't household names with the youth around here. Football and especially basketball are huge. After that, it's soccer. Tons of kids with Messi, FCB, Ronaldo,PSG and Mexico soccer apparel. 
Click to expand...
Maybe but hockey is huge in Russia, Canada and Scandinavian countries.  This list shows ice hockey as the 10th most popular spectator sport in the world.  I would have thought at least one player would have made the list.

 
Godsbrother said:
Maybe but hockey is huge in Russia, Canada and Scandinavian countries.  This list shows ice hockey as the 10th most popular spectator sport in the world.  I would have thought at least one player would have made the list.
Click to expand...
Other than Russia,those are some pretty small countries though.

 
Ilov80s said:
Other than Russia,those are some pretty small countries though.
Click to expand...
I'd be curious to see viewership/knowledge numbers in Europe and Asia for NHL vs NFL. Hockey is International in terms of league makeup in terms of players and should have a broader reach. The flipside is half the world never sees ice. It's easy to say the European countries are smaller/less population but at least there is strong global knowledge there, where I can't see the NFL being overly popular in any of those countries or any of the soccer-first countries (basically everywhere else). Knowing the methodology used here probably lends to the NFL players being higher somewhat, does anyone outside the US (and Canada) care about the NFL (and if so, why?). 

If you switch from players to teams, I wonder how the list changes. Either all 100 are European soccer teams, or you get at least some MLB/NHL representation, I think).

 
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no floyd mayweather? I know he's not fighting... but I"d imagine he's still more famous than most of the people on that list.

tiny surprise that Messi's not #1... but ronaldo sure is dreamy.

 
MattFancy said:
There's 8 NFL players:

21. Tom Brady

47. Cam Newton

52. Drew Brees

55. Russell Wilson

56. Aaron Rodgers

60. Eli Manning

64. Odell Beckham

74. JJ Watt

Not sure how Brees is higher than Beckham. And totally agree about baseball players. Was really surprised not to see Trout or Harper on there. Lots of soccer, basketball, and golf guys on there.
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Endorsements:
Brees: $12M.  OD $6m

Facebook
Brees: 2M followers. OD 1.4m

Twitter
Brees: 2.7M. OD 2.1M

Instagram

Brees 475k. OD 7.8M

Only thing Odell ranked higher at was Instagram.

 
El Floppo said:
no floyd mayweather? I know he's not fighting... but I"d imagine he's still more famous than most of the people on that list.
Click to expand...
From the Methodology link

" Retired athletes are not included. Therefore, popular stars such as Tony Romo (No. 70 in 2016) and Floyd Mayweather (No. 26 in 2016) are absent.

 
NewlyRetired said:
From the Methodology link

" Retired athletes are not included. Therefore, popular stars such as Tony Romo (No. 70 in 2016) and Floyd Mayweather (No. 26 in 2016) are absent.
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ok, makes sense (and I feel like I ask these kind of questions every time this kind of thing gets posted).

otherwise, Pele and Ali would still be waaaaaaay up near the top.

 
NewlyRetired said:
I think the only names I did not recognize on the list were the two cricket players, the table tennis guy, and badminton guy.
Click to expand...
Basically knew everyone but the sports I don't follow - cricket, formula one, swimming, table tennis and ping pong.  Ended up being almost 10 people.

 
GregR said:
Endorsements:
Brees: $12M.  OD $6m

Facebook
Brees: 2M followers. OD 1.4m

Twitter
Brees: 2.7M. OD 2.1M

Instagram

Brees 475k. OD 7.8M

Only thing Odell ranked higher at was Instagram.
Click to expand...
I doesn't take much brain power to post photos. Yes, I just called Odell dumb compared to Brees.

 
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