Brought to you by Di Caprio finally achieving this Sunday what the best part of 30 years of work have gone into and Leicester possibly doing something in May that should probably make everyone who watches the English game smile.
Who has been the most popular winner of something and what was it that they won?
Then there are the ones that got away. No better example of which I can give than Jimmy White (not) winning the Snooker World Championship.
Over to you.
That black fella who won an Olympic medal and raised his fist in the air.
Federer when he won a billion things. Might as well be a God in the tennis world. One of his Wimbledon wins would be the most cherished.
Who was the most popular Brit of the 2012 Olympics?
I don't know who the answer is, but there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that it's not Federer.Originally Posted by Reg
People like(d) him, but he's not the most popular winner.
Hitler when he won the Battle of France. Possibly not universally loved, but the Germans were happy.
Ivanisevic winning Wimbledon was pretty great. Three time losing finalist then comes back when everybody thinks he's finished to win it as a wildcard entry. Probably my favourite non-football sporting achievement.
Germany zipping up brazil on the way to the world cup win. It was a ferocious beating brazil took.
John Daly.
What's your favourite footballing one?
Would Tony Blair in 97 be a fair shout...?
Probably Gino winning I'm a Celebrity.
Getting 80 odd percent of the votes.
People fucking love Federer, don't they? I'd have him in 2008 as maybe the most popular.
Brazil 1970 is an easy one (except for you Brits).
I was going to say that as well. Jack Nicklaus winning the '86 Masters too.
David Sneddon.
On that basis it's Kim Jong-Il's stunning victory at the 2003 North Korean elections.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_...election,_2003
As Lee's suggested, Ivanisevic was more popular. Probably Agassi too.
People may like Federer more than both of those, but in terms of one off wins (which this thread is about), I don't buy it.
Fair enough.
Greece in 2004? I was too young for that, I know it caused a stir but did people really love that team the way they love Leicester now?
Ronald Reagan for Conservatives.
99.9% turnout too, close the thread.
America loves these big dominant figures in sport. Michael Jordan, whoever. Tiger Woods is now so crocked that he can't even sit in a chair, let alone play golf, but their golf media still seems to dispense 50%+ of its airtime to him.
Nope. People were surprised, but most ultimately thought that Greece were boring and a bit shit.
England would have beaten them, which says it all really.
They played absoutely honking football. The combination of that with Mourinho's Porto winning the Champions League the same year led some people to predict doom for the sport.
Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania IX.
I'd be surprised. Federer is worshipped. People enjoy and celebrate underdogs, they don't worship them.
Do people really 'worship' a tennis player? I like Rog as much as the next man but he nonces around in a jacket with his initials on it for goodness sake.
I'm probably coming at it from a tennis world perspective as much as a general public perspective. But yeah, as Spoon said, people fucking love Federer.
He wins this thread if he wins Wimbledon again in about five years' time after a prolonged period of falling away into old age.
Everybody I know has a portrait of him in their living room.
I'd have him up there as one of the most popular sportsman, but not the most popular winner of something.
Overwhelming favourites/top dogs/multiple winners can never be that popular.
Underdogs aren't loved. The greats of sport are loved. I genuinely think Federer is like if you combined Messi, Maradonna and Pele.
By tennis fans, of which there are about fifteen for eleven months of the year.
So why are we talking about sport in general then? The above applies to Ivanisevic and company as much as it does Federer (more).
Good question. I've only thought about it very briefly and the best I can think of as a neutral is probably France beating Brazil in the 1998 World Cup final. I bet it isn't that though, if I gave it some proper thought. Germany battering the Brazilians would be up there, as would Man United beating Bayern in '99. The way Man City won the league in 2012 was great as well.
I'm just thinking of times I went mental watching. Actually, I might have enjoyed Holland destroying Spain at the last World Cup more than the Germans doing Brazil, simply because I thought Spain were anti-football bastards in spite of all the fawning. The main reason I liked Brazil getting whomped was a dislike of Neymar and Tim Vickery (who I really like now I listen to the World Football Phone-in every week).
Germany-Brazil was more surreal than anything else. It was like the laws of physics had briefly come undone.
Higgins winning the 1982 World Championships? Too young to be aware of it but everyone who's an old cunt I know that loves snooker raves about him and his drunken cheekiness.
Donald Trump when he becomes president.
Fuck tennis.
Muhammad Ali winning The Rumble in the Jungle must be up there.
Lewis winning Best Poster.
Although I'm not sure which time.
I'm a twit
Nelson Mandela.
Motherwell against Rangers last year.
Denmark winning Euro 92?
Yeah that. I'd forgot about that one.
Iran beating USA at France '98 was great.
Spike Milligan winning that lifetime achievement award and calling Prince Charles a grovelling little bastard.
Mick Foley winning the title in 99.
I'm with Reg. Underdogs are good and all but no one in my mind has achieved the kind of dominance Federer has while being loved almost universally.
I'm a bit too young for that, but wasn't Nigel Mansell hugely popular when he finally won the F1 Championship in 1992?
I thought he was regarded as the most boring winner of all time.
He was hugely revered by the public for his bold driving style at the time, even if his car that year was thoroughly unbeatable. James Hunt was also very popular when he won in 1976.
Our Nige was the plucky brit in his flat cap fending off those languorous mediterranean types in the finest shed built British machinery. Or so the story goes.
Silverstone was fucking mental that year.
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