• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Who is the most famous sports person of all time?

Status
Not open for further replies.

tbm24

Member
Why OP gotta ask this question if he isn't going to acknowledge the non-Commonwealth world at large? Like, he's getting incredulous over Michael Jordan > Tim Henman (who I've never heard of)?



The thing about Ronaldo is I don't know which one you're referring to.

Yes you do, pretending Fat Ronaldo is on the same plane(of popularity) as pretty boy Ronaldo is choosing to be difficult.
 

Mdot

Member
Quick Google search produced this for most popular sports: Link

Soccer, Cricket, Basketball. Not sure where their estimates come from, but doesn't seem unreasonable.
 

Tarsul

Member
before coming into the thread I though "probably jordan or maybe muhammad ali". And... see the results from neogaf say the same.

These are two people whose names will forever, or at least for as long as we live, be synonimous for the sports they played. However, since Ali's career has been over for so much longer than Jordan's and because basketball is a game that is more famous than boxing all over the world (it's number 2 sports in many many countries. Nearly nowhere number 1 but number 2 is enough to know about it - and about Jordan), Jordan comes first nowadays.

Question is how to interpret the question: Is it just about a certain point in time in which one sportsperson was the most famous (known to nearly every living human at that point in time) or is it about a person who transcends through the ages and lives on as a legend (which could be interpreted as "more famous"). But... whatever, we're going semantics here. Doesn't matter.
 

Cheebo

Banned
You can't be #1 with no one in America having a clue who they are. America is too central to worldwide culture and popularity. It is literally impossible to be the #1 ever when no one in America has a clue who they are. No one in America has any idea who the guy the OP mentioned is. At the very least there is SOME awareness of Michael Jordan worldwide. Most in America never heard the name the OP mentioned.
 

daviyoung

Banned
You can't be #1 with no one in America having a clue who they are. America is too central to worldwide culture and popularity. It is literally impossible to be the #1 ever when no one in America has a clue who they are. No one in America has any idea who the guy the OP mentioned is. At the very least there is SOME awareness of Michael Jordan worldwide. Most in America never heard the name the OP mentioned.

Tim Henman isn't even popular in the UK dude

sorry Tim
 
You can't be #1 with no one in America having a clue who they are. America is too central to worldwide culture and popularity. It is literally impossible to be the #1 ever when no one in America has a clue who they are. No one in America has any idea who the guy the OP mentioned is. At the very least there is SOME awareness of Michael Jordan worldwide. Most in America never heard the name the OP mentioned.

Prepare yourself, the British are coming.

The uninformed ones.
 

Mdot

Member
Question is how to interpret the question: Is it just about a certain point in time in which one sportsperson was the most famous (known to nearly every living human at that point in time) or is it about a person who transcends through the ages and lives on as a legend (which could be interpreted as "more famous"). But... whatever, we're going semantics here. Doesn't matter.

That's a good point though. I put Ali and Jordan both on that standard of transcendence. Ali more for the controversy surrounding him, but also being near the top ever in his sport. Jordan was (imo) the best ever, has yet to be topped AND reached the level he's at through ventures outside of basketball yet all related to it: marketing, shoes, etc.
 

tbm24

Member
You can't be #1 with no one in America having a clue who they are. America is too central to worldwide culture and popularity. It is literally impossible to be the #1 ever when no one in America has a clue who they are. No one in America has any idea who the guy the OP mentioned is. At the very least there is SOME awareness of Michael Jordan worldwide. Most in America never heard the name the OP mentioned.

You'd have a hell of a time trying to prove that the name Maradona is not known to Americans. You say no one in America knows who Maradona is, I say you have no clue who Maradona is to know why what you just said is ridiculous.
 

Moze

Banned
You can't be #1 with no one in America having a clue who they are. America is too central to worldwide culture and popularity. It is literally impossible to be the #1 ever when no one in America has a clue who they are. No one in America has any idea who the guy the OP mentioned is. At the very least there is SOME awareness of Michael Jordan worldwide. Most in America never heard the name the OP mentioned.

Diego Maradona and David Beckham are more famous in the US than Jordan is in Europe. Fact.

I once asked who this guy was

mjl.gif


And GAF tore me a new one. GAF sure loves their Michael Jordan, even the old fat version.


That's what i know him as. I know him as the guy in that gif that is posted online sometimes.
 

daviyoung

Banned
I'm not trolling. I know nothing about Jordan other than the fact he is a basketball player. I probably wouldn't recognise him in the street.

I once asked who this guy was

mjl.gif


And GAF tore me a new one. GAF sure loves their Michael Jordan, even the old fat version.
 
Football fans already forgot Beckham.

Most popular of all time ? It's such an insane thing to say.

Next thing you're going to tell me Spice Girls are the most famous band of all time.
 
GAF has spoken. Here is the list of answers so far:

Jordan 113
Ali 95
Pele 57
Beckham 23
Maradona 22
Tiger Woods 20
Ronaldo 14
Tyson 12
Messi 10
Schumacher 9
Gretzky 7
Babe Ruth 6
Tendulkar 6

Some answers I excluded which were ambiguous. Also excluded answers like "I'm American I dont know about any other sport so answer is Jordan lol"

lol at babe ruth, gretzky and tendulkar. most people wont know these three, i had to google two of them. i know of tendulkar because i loosely follow cricket, which hardly anyone does in uk nevermind usa and europe.

tyson should be higher up on the list imo, he is 2nd only to ali in boxing popularity. i have yet to run into someone who didnt know who ali or tyson were
 

Mdot

Member
tyson should be higher up on the list imo, he is 2nd only to ali in boxing popularity. i have yet to run into someone who didnt know who ali or tyson were

List within a list:
Ali
Tyson
Leonard
Foreman
Frazier
Mayweather (reluctantly)
Robinson
De la Hoya
Pacquiao
 

Danchi

Member
I had to google who Sachin Tendulkar was...

I also think very few (relatively speaking) people outside North America would recognise a picture of Wayne Gretzky.
 

Mdot

Member
I understand that baseball is a primarily US sport, but who are the players that non-US Gaf think/know of? Just curious.
 

GYNGA

Member
Schumacher gets my vote. Everyone knows Schumacher despite the fact that F1 is not that popular in comparison to football or basketball.
 
Lol Kenny Powers.

I was actually assuming Jeter would be up there. Maybe Bonds due to the scandals. Jackie Robinson for obvious reasons.

It cannot possibly be a baseball player. I'm pretty sure leagueoflegends players like faker, double lift and scarra would be more famous internationally than a baseball player.
 
List within a list:
Ali
Tyson
Leonard
Foreman
Frazier
Mayweather (reluctantly)
Robinson
De la Hoya
Pacquiao

thats a good list in terms of boxers. the gulf between ali/tyson and the rest is massive though, believe it or not most people still dont have a clue who floyd is. he went to a barbershop in london and got into a little argument because a lady didnt know who he was. to be fair to her my parents and sisters have no clue who he is either.

ali and tyson are the only boxers that transcended the sport and became global icons.
 

crazyprac

Member
Came to see Jordan #1 and thread turning to another Jordan thread... Left with OP trolling

BTW I'm 40/60 thinking its the fat ronaldo every time that name comes up. Maybe because I watched soccer way more often when I was younger...
 

Mdot

Member
It cannot possibly be a baseball player. I'm pretty sure leagueoflegends players like faker, double lift and scarra would be more famous internationally than a baseball player.

Oh I know. I was just curious as to who from baseball would be "known" outside of the US.
 

Mdot

Member
thats a good list in terms of boxers. the gulf between ali/tyson and the rest is massive though, believe it or not most people still dont have a clue who floyd is. he went to a barbershop in london and got into a little argument because a lady didnt know who he was. to be fair to her my parents and sisters have no clue who he is either.

ali and tyson are the only boxers that transcended the sport and became global icons.

Yes, agreed.

And Foreman more for his grills than boxing to the outsider lol
 
Oh I know. I was just curious as to who from baseball would be "known" outside of the US.

Barry bonds was in a Kanye song. I heard Jeter referenced in the other guys. I know Riviera from a brief amount of a Yankees game I saw. A rod is probably the first person who comes to mind though.
 

Cromat

Member
Michael Jordan isn't even close. He's not wellknown in Africa or Asia where, you know, most people actually live. Not so sure young people in Europe know about him either.
 

Mdot

Member
I'd be interested in a list of most popular teams as well. Is there a standout soccer club that garners fans from other parts of Europe than where they're located? Sort of like there being Dallas Cowboy fans everywhere in the US.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom