Five Asians Make the List of World’s Top 100 Most Famous Athletes. Can you guess which ones?
|It started off with a simple question: Who’s the most famous athlete in the world? Ben Alamar, ESPN’s director of sports analytics, devised a formula that combines salary and endorsements with social media following and Google search popularity to create the ESPN World Fame 100 rankings. The names might be familiar, but where the planet’s biggest stars land on the list could surprise you.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo
2. LeBron James
3. Lionel Messi
4. Neymar
5. Roger Federer
6. Kevin Durant
7. Tiger Woods
8. Virat Kohli
9. James Rodriguez
10. Rafael Nadal
11. Kobe Bryant
12. Gareth Bale
13. Phil Mickelson
14. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
15. Usain Bolt
16. Novak Djokovic
17. Wayne Rooney
18. Maria Sharapova
19. Mesut Ozil
20. Rory McIlroy
21. Zlatan Ibrahimovic
22. Luis Suarez
23. Ronda Rousey
24. Sergio Aguero
25. Serena Williams
26. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
27. Radamel Falcao
28. Cesc Fabregas
29. Carmelo Anthony
30. Derrick Rose
31. Andy Murray
32. Cam Newton
33. Dwyane Wade
34. Stephen Curry
35. Manny Pacquiao
36. Dwight Howard
37. Conor McGregor
38. Peyton Manning
39. Chris Paul
40. Odell Beckham Jr.
41. Sania Mirza
42. Eden Hazard
43. Blake Griffin
44. Drew Brees
45. Damian Lillard
46. Michael Phelps
47. Kei Nishikori
48. Russell Westbrook
49. Russell Wilson
50. Jordan Spieth
51. Justin Rose
52. Tom Brady
53. Aaron Rodgers
54. James Harden
55. Alex Morgan
56. J.J. Watt
57. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
58. Jimmie Johnson
59. Lewis Hamilton
60. Jeremy Lin
61. Marshawn Lynch
62. Frank Lampard
63. Danica Patrick
64. Ryan Sheckler
65. Alex Ovechkin
66. Eli Manning
67. Kevin Love
68. Chris Bosh
69. Andrew Luck
70. Tony Romo
71. Bryce Harper
72. Rob Gronkowski
73. Mike Trout
74. Venus Williams
75. Fernando Alonso
76. Shaun White
77. Tony Stewart
78. David Ortiz
79. Amar’e Stoudemire
80. Wladimir Klitschko
81. Lydia Ko
82. Sidney Crosby
83. Billy Horschel
84. Canelo Alvarez
85. Robinson Cano
86. Yaya Toure
87. Deron Williams
88. Miguel Cabrera
89. Masahiro Tanaka
90. Tim Duncan
91. Rudy Gay
92. Evgeni Malkin
93. Albert Pujols
94. Kyle Busch
95. Andy Dalton
96. Tim Howard
97. Kimi Raikkonen
98. Ben Roethlisberger
99. Carson Palmer
100. Matt Kemp
Source: ESPN’s World Fame 100