ESPN’s World Fame 100

ESPN The Magazine recently published a list of the 100 most famous athletes in the world.[1]  They surveyed many of their reporters around the world and then created a formula, which they did not share, based on “endorsements, social media following and Google search popularity.”[2]  They call their list the “World Fame 100.”

Fourteen different “sports” are represented.[3]  If you can guess them all, then you have been paying closer attention than I have.  The runaway winner is soccer.  Thirty-eight soccer players are in the top 100, including one woman.  There were eight women on the list, from four different sports.  Even naming the two sports with more than one woman would be impressive.  Golf is not one of them.  The other two sports are easier to guess because I already told you that one of them is soccer.

Does it make sense that 38% of the most famous athletes in the world are soccer players?  It’s pretty impressive on one level – the worldwide level.  But it doesn’t register true with me.  Perhaps it’s because only five of them are known to me.  I could have guessed on several others, given their names, but I only knew (for sure) that five of them were soccer players.

Below is the number of athletes on the list by sport:

Soccer         38

Basketball   14

Tennis         11

Golf              9

Football        8

Cricket          4

Auto racing   4

UFC              3

Swimming    2

Gymnastics    2

Boxing          2

Track            1

Table tennis   1

Badminton    1

It turns out that at least one track, table tennis, and badminton star is more famous than any baseball player or any (ice or field) hockey player.  You can probably name the track star.[4]

Fame is fickle, actually the poetic way to say it is:  Fame is a fickle food.[5]  The same list next year might have a significantly different look.

The top five are representative of the overall list:  Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Lionel Messi, Roger Federer, and Phil Mickelson.  Two soccer players is 40%, similar to soccer’s overall 38%, then the next three biggest sports all have one each.

I knew 52 of the 100 on the list.  The most famous athlete I didn’t know was Neymar at 6th.  I would have guessed soccer or rap music, given the one name.  But it would have been a guess.  The other athletes in the top 20 that I didn’t know are cricketers Virat Kohli (13) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (15).  The lowest ranked athlete known to me is golfer Adam Scott (98).

It’s an eclectic list because it’s worldwide.  If the list were comprised of the 100 most famous baseball players in America, there’s a good chance I would know them all.  I would probably know the 100 most famous Ohio State athletes.  Despite the fame and long-term excellence of the football team, the two most famous OSU athletes of all time are likely a golfer and a runner.[6]

In a sign of how the times are a-changing, two UFC fighters rank in the top 25:  Ronda Rousey (16, the highest ranked woman in the world) and Conor McGregor (25).  Meanwhile only two boxers made the list.  The highest ranked boxer is Manny Pacquiao (59), a 40-year old welterweight.  What in the name of Muhammad Ali is going on?

Here’s a question that I would like you to answer:  how can the NFL, which has no foreign players to speak of put eight players on the list but baseball, which has professional leagues in many foreign countries has none?  I’m serious.  How is that possible?  The following foreign countries have more than one player currently playing major league baseball:  S. Korea, Japan, Taiwan,[7] Germany, Canada, Cuba, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico,[8] Australia, Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuala.

All of these countries have some interest in MLB, yet not one player is among the 100 most famous athletes in the world.  But Ma Long (71, table tennis) and Lin Dan (88, badminton) are on the list.  And why not?  Both sports are fun, accessible, and unquestionably within my definition of a sport.

Of the 14 sports on the list, only four consistently capture my attention:  basketball, tennis, golf, and football.  They account for 42% of the athletes listed.  There’s a big world out there that I am missing.  But if it’s full of soccer, UFC, and auto racing, then I’m comfortable right where I am.

[1] June 12, 2017 edition.  The list contains only active athletes.

[2] Apparently ESPN is not a fan of the Oxford Comma.  Vampire Weekend has an excellent song that mentions the Oxford Comma.   https://www.google.com/search?q=vampire+weekend+oxford+comma&rlz=1C1EODB_enUS512US556&oq=vampire+weekend&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0l5.7129j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[3] For an explanation of the quotes around sports, see my post What is a Sport?, dated 2/2/17.

[4] Usain Bolt

[5] Emily Dickinson, Fame is a fickle food (1702).

[6] Jack Nicklaus and Jesse Owens

[7] Hopefully the government of China is not monitoring my blog.

[8] I think I wish they were a country though I’d have to study the issue more to be certain.