ESPN's most famous athletes in the world

[Reg]

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/15685581/espn-world-fame-100

I'm not having Messi as less famous than LeBron (they have Messi's twitter followers at 13.5k, erm). Too many basketball players in the list.

[Pepe]

Who the fuck is Virat Kohli?

[Disco]

From cricket, it's like baseball but with cake.

[Pepe]

A lot of people I've never heard of in there.

[Lewis]

These lists just chuck anybody in after the top twenty-ish, so it's probably right except for The Rock not being in it and Usain Bolt not being in the top five.

[Pepe]

From cricket, it's like baseball but with cake.

I'll have you know that I played cricket once (completely donned it too.)

[Pepe]

I like that there are two nascar drivers above Lewis Hamilton. :harold:

[Baz]

I'm surprised Christian Pulisic isn't on it. :rolleyes:

[Jimmy Floyd]

I think I've heard of Kevin Durant, but I'm not sure. The first one I've definitely never heard of is Ronda Rousey.

Fucking Billy Horschel is in there? You're having a laugh.

[Pen]

From the footballers on the list Tim Howard seems a bit out of place, but I guess that's solely down to nationality. If there wouldn't be pictures next to everyone I don't think I'd know the sport for about half of them.

[Raoul Duke]

I'm not sure why America thinks anyone outside of their country takes their sports seriously. There are championship footballers who are more famous (globally) than anyone in shit like Nascar or American Football.

[Browning]

How are there 5 or 6 NFL players ranked higher than Tom Brady?

Mayweather at 26th is bollocks too, he's much higher than that.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

You could make arguments for all bar Brees being ahead of him though.

Cam has his shit dab thing, the whole team picture bullshit and then the last Superbowl (lol). Peyton has been around since forever and just won the Superbowl. Beckham has 'the catch' as well as the fighting shit with Norman and Wilson has been in 2 of the last 2 Superbowls plus he can run, which people love.

[Browning]

Most of that is only stuff NFL fans will be aware of though, I'm fairly sure I knew who Tom Brady was before I watched a single game.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

A lot of people who aren't NFL fans watch the Superbowl though and I'd imagine that Odell Beckham's catch went mental on vines and all that shit. My nephews who have never seen an NFL game are aware of the catch.

I doubt they know anyone else though.

[Pepe]

Never heard of Odell Beckham (lol) or 'the catch.'

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lKbuRFJ4whwHplgic5bGVmaUiqM=/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2486294/OMGODB.0.gif

[Pepe]

Alright that was pretty good.

What was the flag for?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

The Cowboy defender pulled Beckham's left arm.

So he was technically fouled but still pulled it off.

[Gray Fox]

Alright that was pretty good.

What was the flag for?

Pass interference on #39.

[Pepe]

Was that on the Super Bowl?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

No, a Monday night game between two rivals.

Still a pretty big audience.

[Shindig]

The metrics of twitter followers and facebook likes kind of mess this up.

[Raoul Duke]

However famous an American Football player is, the Super Bowl figures outside the US must be tiny, compared to the World Cup which is probably a billion or more. It's incomparable.

[Foe]

You could make arguments for all bar Brees being ahead of him though.

Cam has his shit dab thing, the whole team picture bullshit and then the last Superbowl (lol). Peyton has been around since forever and just won the Superbowl. Beckham has 'the catch' as well as the fighting shit with Norman and Wilson has been in 2 of the last 2 Superbowls plus he can run, which people love.

The only reason brees is so high is his salary (he's counting 30mill against the cap this year) whilst Brady was taking a discount.

Heavily dominated by soccer though, which must've pissed the yanks off.

[Byron]

Joey Barton must be devastated.

[Utotri]

That list is so US-centric... It's painful to see how deluded they are. The list should be swarmed with football players. F1 is underrated as well. How is Bolt only 15th?

[niko_cee]

The only really super lol thing about that list (other than its mere existence) is good old Tiger loitering in 7th place. May as well have Pele on there. He's about as likely to win a golfing major. Hard to say football is under-represented given it makes up a good percentage of the top20/30. I bet C. Ronaldo has a golden screenshot of this in his museum.