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Eight
British athletes make the top 100 of the ESPN World Fame 100, with Theo Walcott
sitting in 79th - five ahead of 84th-placed Lewis Hamilton.
And stars
from the world of football, golf, basketball, cricket, NFL, tennis, athletics
and many other sports feature.
ESPN
director of analytics Ben Alamar came up with the formula which controls the
outcome of the list, with earnings, social media influence and Google search
popularity all taken into account.
Joining
Ronaldo, James and Messi in
the top 10 are tennis ace Roger Federer, veteran
golfer Phil Mickelson, Brazilian icon Neymar, world-record sprinter Usain Bolt,
another NBA star in the shape of Kevin Durant and multiple Grand Slam champion
Rafa Nadal.
In at 10,
with the order finalised before his recent arrest on DUI charges in Florida, is
Tiger Woods. Footballers dominate the World Fame 100, with the sport claiming
38 of the positions available.
Of those 38,
almost a third ply their trade in the Premier League - including Zlatan
Ibrahimovic (26), Alexis Sanchez (29) and Wayne Rooney (31).
The most
expensive player ever to play the game, Paul Pogba - himself a prolific
presence on Twitter and Instagram - comes in at 40, behind Japanese tennis star
Kei Nishikori (20) and two Indian cricketers in Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh
Dhoni.
Cricket has
four entries in total, some way behind basketball (13), golf (11) and tennis
(10). There are representatives of table tennis, badminton, swimming,
gymnastics, MMA, motorsport and NFL but no rugby players and only one boxer -
Manny Pacquaio. Conor McGregor, the UFC fighter who may well move into the
boxing ring to fight Floyd Mayweather Jnr, is ranked 25th.
Speaking of
Mayweather, the algorithm does not take into account 'retired' athletes, hence
the absence of the man they call 'Money' from this list.
Another UFC
competitor, Ronda Rousey, is the highest-placed woman on the list at 16th. She
leads a total of eight women, four of whom are tennis players.
Top 20
1 Cristiano
Ronaldo (football)
2 LeBron
James (basketball)
3 Lionel
Messi (football)
4 Roger
Federer (tennis)
5 Phil
Mickelson (golf)
6 Neymar
(football)
7 Usain Bolt
(athletics)
8 Kevin
Durant (basketball)
9 Rafael
Nadal (tennis)
10 Tiger
Woods (golf)
11 Stephen
Curry (basketball)
12 Novak
Djokovic (tennis)
13 Virat
Kohli (cricket)
14 Rory
McIlroy (golf)
15 Mahendra
Singh Dhoni (cricket)
16 Ronda
Rousey (UFC)
17 Jordan
Spieth (golf)
18 Kaka (football)
19 Serena
Williams (tennis)
20 Kei
Nishikori (tennis)
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