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Lionel Messi : Cristiano Ronaldo beats Barcelona star to World’s famous athlete

Sudarshan Venkatesan
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Cristiano Ronaldo has been named as World’s famous athlete ahead of Lionel Messi and Lebron James. 

Not too long ago Cristiano Ronaldo became the first athlete to cross 150 million followers on Instagram. The Portuguese International has been named as the world’s famous athlete over the likes of Lionel Messi and Lebron James.

Instagram is thought to have 1 billion users, which means that 15% of the users follow the record Champions League winner. Isn’t this stat crazy?

So, it comes as no surprise that the Juventus forward has been named as the World’s famous athlete, beating the likes of Lebron James and Conor McGregor, among other notable names.

ESPN have named 100 most famed sports person and they started with 600 of the biggest names in sports, drawing from 68 countries.

ESPN’s Sports Analytics Group then ranked them based on a proprietary formula that took into account three fame factors, according to their official website.

Search Score measures how often a name is searched on Google, using Cristiano Ronaldo’s score of 100 as a baseline, then endorsement dollars and social media followers are also calculated thoroughly.

So who does make the top 20 by calculating these factors?

20. Novak Djokovic
Endorsements: $22million
Search score: 21
Social media following: 8.5million

19. Mesut Ozil
Endorsements: $6.5million
Search score: 15
Social media following: 30.9million

18. Yuvraj Singh
Endorsements: $31million
Search score: 1
Social media following: 14.5million

17. Serena Williams
Endorsements: $18.11million
Search score: 37
Social media following: 10.8million

16. Antoine Griezmann
Endorsements: $23million
Search score: 20
Social media following: 22.6million

15. Khabib Nurmagomedov
Endorsements: $3.9million
Search score: 100
Social media following: 13.4million

14. Kylian Mbappe
Endorsements: $18.87million
Search score: 32
Social media following: 23.5million

13. MS Dhoni
Endorsements: $28million
Search score: 5
Social media following: 20.5million

12. Paul Pogba
Endorsements: $32million
Search score: 15
Social media following: 30.7million

11. Kevin Durant
Endorsements: $32million
Search score: 9
Social media following: 17.4million

10. Tiger Woods
Endorsements: $42million
Search score: 20
Social media following: 6.4million

9. Stephen Curry
Endorsements: $42million
Search score: 12
Social media following: 23million

8. Rafael Nadal
Endorsements: $29.3million
Search score: 40
Social media following: 15.6million

7. Virat Kohli
Endorsements: $20million
Search score: 25
Social media following: 37.1million

6. Roger Federer
Endorsements: $41.5million
Search score: 23
Social media following: 14.5million

5. Conor McGregor
Endorsements: $15million
Search score: 100
Social media following: 29.7million

4. Neymar
Endorsements: $19million
Search score: 55
Social media following: 107.2million

3. Lionel Messi
Endorsements: $28million
Search score: 54
Social media following: 103.1million

2. LeBron James
Endorsements: $52million
Search score: 47
Social media following: 45.3million

1. Cristiano Ronaldo
Endorsements: $37million
Search score: 100
Social media following: 148million

Cristiano Ronaldo is first in the social following, 10th in search score and fourth in endorsements. Whilst, Lionel Messi is third in the social following, 9th in search score and 13th in endorsements.

The Portuguese International’s net worth in 2019 is approximately 450 million dollars. On the other hand, his rivals net worth is somewhere around 400 million dollars.

Ronaldo also has something no other rival soccer player has: a lifetime contract with Nike that is worth an estimated $1 billion.

Lionel Messi might win the battles on the pitch, but Cristiano Ronaldo is surely making his name in endorsements and has a huge social following more than the Argentine.

With a fair share of Ballon d’Or, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have produced one of the best rivalries over the last decade. Their hard work and commitment are paying off every single day as the sponsors rile up in numbers for their signature.

Beside the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Gareth Bale, various footballers including Antoine Griezmann, Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, James Rodriguez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney, Andres Iniesta, Paulo Dybala, Paul Pogba, Luis Suarez, Sergio Aguero, Radamel Falcao, Alexis Sanchez, Philippe Coutinho, Karim Benzema, David Luiz, Dani Alves, Javier Hernandez, Thomas Muller, Kylian Mbappe, Robert Lewandowski, Eden Hazard, Marco Reus, Toni Kroos, Alvaro Morata, and Thiago Silva are the other candidates to finish in the top 100 of the list.

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