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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After Second Galactic Failure, David Beckham Really Could Save Tottenham

Once again, Spice Boy David Beckham is rumored to be looking to be the special ingredient for a world-beating recipe. How'd those last few concotions turn out?

When England caretaker manager Peter Taylor appointed Beckham captain of the England national team in 2000, it was with the thought that he might lead the squad to a golden era of football. Instead, the squad was booed for the majority of his tenure, and the team failed to advance past the quarter-finals of his two World Cups in the armband.

When Real Madrid bought Beckham in 2003 (per the terms of the Galactico theory of football management), they envisioned him as the final piece to the greatest team ever assembled. Instead, Madrid failed to advance as far the Champions League Final in his time with the club, and Becks became the poster-boy for the modern footballer more concerned with fame than football.

When the Los Angeles Galaxy awarded Beckham with an incentive laden contract worth up to $250 million over five seasons last summer, they proclaimed that he could make Americans care about soccer, put the MLS on level footing with American football, and lure more stars to the States. Instead, Americans still don't even know when the MLS is in season, the MLS is still trying to claw its way to the fourth-tier of the world's football leagues just behind the Eredivisie, and a 31-year-old Juan Pablo Angel is the next most relevant non-American signing by the league.

So a logical man might think that Beckham should stop looking for challenges. But he'd be wrong.

It's time once again for Beckham to (attempt to) swoop to the rescue of a faltering football faction in the spotlight; this time, it's Tottenham Hotspur in dire need of help.

Spurs, despite their reputation for underachieving, have really outdone themselves and are currently languishing in last place in the Premier League. The club's summer transfer moves have left Tottenham with an unbalanced squad, strong on the wings, weak in the middle and up top.

Ever since Tottenham greedily buckled and pawned Michael Carrick off to Manchester United for a massive profit, they've lacked a fulcrum in the center of the pitch. They've tried a series of midfielders in the center of the park, but all have yet to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and supply the rest of the squad.

Enter Beckham. Two overlooked, improved aspects of his game as he's aged are his tackling ability and his toughness. Spurs are in desperate need of each everywhere on the park. Combine those with his world-class passing ability, leadership, ballhandling, and experience, and he may be capable of shifting inside and excelling at the Premier League level. Fair questions would be raised about his pace and positioning, but if Lasanna Diarra is fast enough and Joey Barton smart enough to excel inside, Beckham will be just fine.

Could it happen? Yes. But it's hard to say if it's realistic. The Galaxy may be happy to let Beckham walk after the failed experiment; even if they're not thrilled at the thought of Beckham leaving, one gets the sense that it was understood from the beginning that Becks could leave after a few seasons if he so desired.

So I believe it'd be up to Tottenham. They tend to focus on signing youth, but two factors play in favor of the duo forming an unforeseen pair. One, Tottenham is desperate. They felt they might be on top of the table at this point, not embarassingly seated at the bottom. Secondly, Daniel Levy is all about money and adding the highest profile player in the world could only help the bottom line.

And if the move goes down and doesn't pan out, it's still not all bad. The journos and tabloids will already be in position watching Golden Balls' every move when Juande Ramos finally gets the ax. Of course, here's guessing he still won't have learned English by the time that happens. Unless they sign Beckham.

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