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Era, who, in your opinion, is the most famous sportsperson in the world?

jem

jem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,757
Thinking about it I think Usain Bolt is a good shout.

He might not be the first person to spring to mind when you think "famous sportsperson" but the olympics is the only sporting event which is followed literally everywhere and the fastest man in the world is a title which anyone is going to recognise.
 
bionic77

bionic77

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,900
Maeros said:
Are you from America? Because you could not be more wrong. Every Italian child knows who Paolo Maldini is.. every Dutch child still knows who cruijff is from the 70's . Every German child still knows who beckenbauer is. Every Romanian child still knows who gheorge hagi is. How? because of their parents/uncle telling them, because of the countless documentaries.. during every football match of today the commentators make references etc etc. They are living legends and wether the child likes it or not the child will know who that is.

To answer the question. Its C.Ronaldo and Messi.
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I don't doubt you that those athletes are still well known, but to be the most famous at something you have to be global and penetrate to people who don't care about the sport. Ronaldo is like that. People who don't even know about the sport will know him from Instagram or from an ad.

I would doubt that every child in most countries knows athletes from the 70s unless literally every kid is into soccer/football. The NFL is the most popular sport in America but I know plenty of kids that are not interested in it (though the majority are) and even for the ones into it if I asked most of them who Joe Montana was I don't think even among fans who are kids more than 60% would know who he was and what team he played for.
 
patriciodcj

patriciodcj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,698
Bäregrabe
People itt also ignore the fact that a lot of people were not alive in the 90s or very young and therefore may not know somebody who was known back then. Gen z is 2.5 billion people
 

Deleted member 12833

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,078
Ali - timeless. Most people weren't even alive for his last match and know who he is.

Possibly Jordan as well. His legacy will live on through his branding.

First time I've ever heard of Pele, Messi, and Maradona is from this thread.
 
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Big Boy

Big Boy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,919
I honestly think you would struggle to find someone more recognised by all age groups, old and young, that is as widely known globally as Usain Bolt. The Olympics is the most watched sporting event in the world and the men's 100m final is the main event.

That Beijing final and then the London final. These were truly global events. And even if you missed the race, you couldn't miss the news coverage that came after
 
BossAttack

BossAttack

Member
Oct 27, 2017
43,186
Stop It said:
More people in India alone would name Tendulkar as their most recognised sportsperson than non US people would name Jordan.

As always, the anglocentric nature of this forum would ignore than the subcontinent alone would provide more than enough people to change the results entirely.
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So?

The question is most famous in the world. If you were to ask someone anywhere in the world if they knew who Michael Jordan was, you'd likely get a yes? Most other national stars would get a "no" outside their home country.
 
Dwebble

Dwebble

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
9,641
I've stood in a remote Ugandan village, where the residents had painted a mural of Cristiano Ronaldo on the walls.

It's Ronaldo.
 
kiguel182

kiguel182

Member
Oct 31, 2017
9,473
It's probably Ronaldo or maybe some cricket player if we are going by "number of people who know them". Jordan is probably the one real contender
 
Arex

Arex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,572
Indonesia
Maradona, Zidane, or Ronaldo (the original) probably the ones my parents will know if I say the name to them lol.

Messi and CR7 for the newer generations lol.

Michael Jordan.

Ali - well known in the US or west maybe, but probably less in Asia.

Usain Bolt - only when there's Olympics but that's about it. I don't see him being talked about outside the Olympics really.
 
jem

jem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,757
Arex said:
Usain Bolt - only when there's Olympics but that's about it. I don't see him being talked about outside the Olympics really.
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This is what I meant when I said Bolt might not be the first person to spring to mind in my previous post because he's not the most actively talked about of the various contenders.

However in terms of name recognition I think you'd find it hard to beat Bolt.
 
Mavis

Mavis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,477
Blue Mountains
mclem said:
Even if you *were* going that way, surely you pick Dwayne Johnson?

(Which does sort of raise the question about whether we're picking out "famous people *for* their sport" or "famous people who happen to have played a sport", because Dwayne Johnson did have a non-WWE sporting career, but that's not what made him famous.)
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To be fair, I had a mate back in the 90's who was 6'5" with long hair and a bit of a metalhead. He went travelling and across the most random places people kept on calling him Undertaker and getting pictures with him. The impact and popularity of wrestling can't be easily dismissed. Just a pity it's not a sport.
 
gozu

gozu

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,442
America
It has to be soccer because it's by far the biggest sport.

~60% of the world is under 35, so Messi because he's the oldest football star still performing at top level. People 34 and below were too young to have watched 80s world cups which were Maradona's glory days but old people still know Messi

Michael Jordan gets an honorable mention :)

Edit: forgot about Ronaldo. One of the two.
 
astro

astro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
57,211
Probably been posted, but we have some data on the most searched for (via google) sports stars in 2021.

sustainhealth.fit

The Worlds Most Popular Sports Stars In 2021 Revealed

Ronda Rousey and Cristiano Ronaldo are the world’s favourite sports stars, according to Google search data
sustainhealth.fit sustainhealth.fit

Top 10 women.
1Ronda RouseyMMA21,666,500
2Alex MorganFootball8,446,340
3Serena WilliamsTennis7,462,710
4Tonya HardingFigure Skating7,254,410
5Paige VanzantMMA6,330,600
6Smriti MandhanaCricket5,923,860
7Joanna JedrzejczykMMA5,595,360
8Amanda NunesMMA4,537,240
9Maria SharapovaTennis4,418,870
10Valentina SchevchenkoMMA3,617,710

Top 10 men.
1Cristiano RonaldoFootball99,207,840
2Lebron JamesBasketball77,564,570
3NeymarFootball76,622,600
4Michael JordanBasketball75,210,140
5Tom BradyAmerican Football63,573,740
6Conor McGregorMMA62,375,910
7Mike TysonBoxing51,364,010
8Lionel MessiFootball38,967,190
9Virat KohliCricket33,133,610
10Tyson FuryBoxing31,323,230

Site has top 20 for each.
 
Irishmantis

Irishmantis

Member
Jan 5, 2019
1,801
astro said:
Probably been posted, but we have some data on the most searched for (via google) sports stars in 2021.

sustainhealth.fit

The Worlds Most Popular Sports Stars In 2021 Revealed

Ronda Rousey and Cristiano Ronaldo are the world’s favourite sports stars, according to Google search data
sustainhealth.fit sustainhealth.fit

Top 10 women.
1Ronda RouseyMMA21,666,500
2Alex MorganFootball8,446,340
3Serena WilliamsTennis7,462,710
4Tonya HardingFigure Skating7,254,410
5Paige VanzantMMA6,330,600
6Smriti MandhanaCricket5,923,860
7Joanna JedrzejczykMMA5,595,360
8Amanda NunesMMA4,537,240
9Maria SharapovaTennis4,418,870
10Valentina SchevchenkoMMA3,617,710

Top 10 men.
1Cristiano RonaldoFootball99,207,840
2Lebron JamesBasketball77,564,570
3NeymarFootball76,622,600
4Michael JordanBasketball75,210,140
5Tom BradyAmerican Football63,573,740
6Conor McGregorMMA62,375,910
7Mike TysonBoxing51,364,010
8Lionel MessiFootball38,967,190
9Virat KohliCricket33,133,610
10Tyson FuryBoxing31,323,230

Site has top 20 for each.
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This is going to piss a lot of people off lol
 
silentg

silentg

Member
Oct 28, 2017
860
Manchester, UK
I'm sorry but it's Christiano Ronaldo. As others have stated before, the litmus test is asking someone with no interest in sport. My wife has a passing interest in international football. Absolutely knows who Ronaldo is. Less so with Messi. Didn't recognise any basketball players. Tiger Woods and Lewis Hamilton -yes.
 
Ryu_Ken

Ryu_Ken

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
1,789
Right now it's Ronaldo.
The recent Man Utd announcement tweet brok the record for likes and retweets.
Their Twitter following shot up by millions in a few hours.
 

Deleted member 8593

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
27,176
Probably revealing my bubble but my first thought was "Jordan, obviously... but maybe it's actually Ali?"

Thinking about it some more, it's probably Cristiano Ronaldo which is... ugh.
 
astro

astro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
57,211
Jordan still playing with the big shots via Google.

Dardan Sandiego said:
Probably revealing my bubble but my first thought was "Jordan, obviously... but maybe it's actually Ali?"

Thinking about it some more, it's probably Cristiano Ronaldo which is... ugh.
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Ronaldo is comfortably at the top of Google's search data.

Of course this doesn't account for "all time" mind share which is going to be next to impossi le to quantify, but considering the data and things like the Man U news generating the engagement it did, he"s very likely the current most known/popular.
 
Favi

Favi

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,992
Equanimity said:
Ask yourself, have you ever met a person who hasn't heard of Muhammad Ali?
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Yes, several. The sport is not very popular around here, and some people who followed it back then still remember him as Cassius Clay (like my father, for example).

Which is sad, because his history should be known by everyone.
 
Tavernade

Tavernade

Tavernade
Moderator
Sep 18, 2018
8,735
It's kinda crazy the bubble I'm in that I've never heard of Ronaldo until this week.

I'm in the camp of "obviously it's Jordan, oh wait it's probably Ali."
 

Deleted member 2802

Community Resetter
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
33,729
astro said:
Probably been posted, but we have some data on the most searched for (via google) sports stars in 2021.

sustainhealth.fit

The Worlds Most Popular Sports Stars In 2021 Revealed

Ronda Rousey and Cristiano Ronaldo are the world’s favourite sports stars, according to Google search data
sustainhealth.fit sustainhealth.fit
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The research, compiled by Sports Shoes, uses Google search data
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
An online shoe store prolly not the best source for research

Wow Google's Global trend athlete of 2020 was . . . Ryan Newman
trends.google.com

Google's Year in Search

Explore the searches that shaped 2020, from Google Trends. #yearinsearch
trends.google.com trends.google.com

Prolly no good way to do this since a lot of athletes have nicknames or can go by just Jordan, there is of course the country Jordan, and Jordan of has his own brand of shoes. If you combine Jordan and Jordan shoe searches - minus Jordan country he probably destroys everyone.

I've never typed in an athletes full name like "Michael Jordan" or "Christiano Ronaldo"
 
Delicious Waffles

Delicious Waffles

Member
Nov 5, 2017
4,970
astro said:
Probably been posted, but we have some data on the most searched for (via google) sports stars in 2021.

sustainhealth.fit

The Worlds Most Popular Sports Stars In 2021 Revealed

Ronda Rousey and Cristiano Ronaldo are the world’s favourite sports stars, according to Google search data
sustainhealth.fit sustainhealth.fit

Top 10 women.
1Ronda RouseyMMA21,666,500
2Alex MorganFootball8,446,340
3Serena WilliamsTennis7,462,710
4Tonya HardingFigure Skating7,254,410
5Paige VanzantMMA6,330,600
6Smriti MandhanaCricket5,923,860
7Joanna JedrzejczykMMA5,595,360
8Amanda NunesMMA4,537,240
9Maria SharapovaTennis4,418,870
10Valentina SchevchenkoMMA3,617,710

Top 10 men.
1Cristiano RonaldoFootball99,207,840
2Lebron JamesBasketball77,564,570
3NeymarFootball76,622,600
4Michael JordanBasketball75,210,140
5Tom BradyAmerican Football63,573,740
6Conor McGregorMMA62,375,910
7Mike TysonBoxing51,364,010
8Lionel MessiFootball38,967,190
9Virat KohliCricket33,133,610
10Tyson FuryBoxing31,323,230

Site has top 20 for each.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
How can that many people know Ronaldo and not Messi? 😂😂😂
 
nekkid

nekkid

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,823
My picks would be, based on global recognition:

Usain Bolt
Roger Federer
Sachin Tendulkar maybe?
 
Arex

Arex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,572
Indonesia
Anoregon said:
I know very little about F1, is it big in South America/Asia?
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I'm in Indonesia so I can only speak for my experience here haha. In the past it was shown quite often on free to air TV here lol. But I reckon most people here would know him at least if you mention his name. Although maybe the teens less so I guess :/
 
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