The 10 Most Famous Athletes in the World

In Bill Simmons NBA Trade Value Column last week, he tries to come up with a list of the 10 most famous athletes in the world:

"Quick question though: Yao is one of the 10 most famous athletes in the world, right? So what would the top 10 look like? I had a great argument about this with someone recently and we honestly couldn't figure it out -- definitely Yao and Tiger, definitely Beckham and Federer, definitely Phelps, maybe Thierry Henry, maybe a Formula One guy (I won't even embarrass myself by guessing), maybe Kobe ... and then ... I mean ... does LeBron make the list? Brady or (Peyton) Manning? Nadal? More soccer players? Any female tennis players? How do we figure this out? I have mentioned this question to a few different people and drawn a sweeping range of answers. Maybe there's no answer. My head hurts."

There are a lot better answers than you came up with Bill, but I wont hold it against you. Most Americans wouldn't have a clue...

Today's Muhammad Alis (1) Tiger Woods. (2) David Beckham. (3) Ronaldinho (who Bill somehow fails to mention). They could walk into almost any remote village in the world and be recognized. Golf is played the world over. Asian women shave their pubic hair to match Golden Ball's latest hair-do. If you see Ronaldinho's face and mane once, you'll never forget it.

Over 1.3 Billion People Know Me (4) Yao Ming.

Icons (5) Roger Federer. (6) Usain Bolt. Federer will likely retire as tennis' greatest champion ever (until Nadal retires). Bolt got the attention of the entire world at the Summer Olympics.

It's the World's Most Popular Sport (7) Kaka. (8) Lionel Messi. (9) Thierry Henry. It's probably hard for Americans who only have a vague awareness or none at all of these three to accept, but in the interests of accuracy, these are probably the three most famous footballers after David Beckham and Ronaldinho. Would Kobe Bryant or LeBron James be recognized walking through Africa, Europe, or Asia? It's doubtful. LeBron may someday reach the heights of popularity seen only by Michael Jordan in the basketball world. But not yet. Kaka, Messi, and Henry would be swarmed in almost any city on the globe. Same goes for Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Kun Aguero, Wayne Rooney, and Franck Ribery. Alexandre Pato will one day be among the most famous people in the world, too. Soccer is huge in the mega-populous China and India and even more massive in South America, Europe, and Africa.

Kind of Guessing (10) Lance Armstrong. He was utterly dominant in his own sport, which gets you recognition from many places that wouldn't normally care. But beyond that, he's become the face of the cancer research efforts worldwide. He's generated billions of dollars through his name and image. I can't definitively say he's more famous than a Ronaldo, Nadal, or even F1's first black star Lewis Hamilton. But he is the most famous domestically and is known all through Europe.

Not Buying It Four continents of the world couldn't pick Phelps out of a police line-up. Kobe and LeBron are probably close, but I feel pretty strongly that the soccer superstars might be three times more well known. I mentioned Lewis Hamilton and if he wins a few more F1 titles, he'll finish his career as one of the most famous faces globally. If Nadal goes on a major run for the next half decade, he could appear. A charismatic heavyweight boxer has the potential to be among the world's most famous. No NFL players are in the top 50 worldwide. Same goes for MLB (and cricket for that matter).

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