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Who is the most famous sports person of all time?

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M

MIMIC

Banned
Data West said:
I've never heard the name 'Maradona' until this thread.
Click to expand...

I play tennis with some guys from South America and Haiti. During the World Cup, they were talking about the greatest soccer players and I remember them talking about him. It was the first time I had ever heard his name
 
D

Dr Duncan Steel

Member
BrianBosworthmullethair.jpg


Brian "The Boz" Bosworth.

Boomer Sooner, Seattle Seahawk, and 90's Nintendo Power advertisement model.

Nuff said.
 
D

delta25

Banned
As a Canadian Gretzky is the only right answer, followed by Lemieux.

Edit:
As a very bias canucks fan I would also say Linden is one of the best all time.
 
G

Gorillaz

Member
Tyson is maybe like top....15 known in the world..or in most sectors they will be like "oh the guy who bite on dudes ear"

He's not touching Ali in overall fame.
 
A

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
Let's bring google in the discussion: (Numbers for their surname only, with the catch that it may get things they aren't related to. Jordan is a state, Bolt is a film, Ronaldo is just Ronaldo.)
Skewed because i'm googling english letters and not chinese\indian\japanese\whatever.
QUOTED search.
Michael Jordan: 42M hits (905)
Diego Maradona: 10M hits (37)
Lionel Messi: 67M hits (210)
David Beckham: 58M (120)
Ronaldo: 153M hits (262)
Usain Bolt: 15M hits (173, but there's NOTHING about him in the first page, duh.)
Andre the giant: 16M
Mike Tyson: 21M (82M)
Muhammad Ali: 27M (870M, but "ali" means "Wings" in italian, and being a three-letter word, probably a bunch of other stuff. Also a film, and like 2 results about him in first page)
Wayne Gretzky: 1M (6M)
Sachin Tendulkar 15M (17M), may need indian spelling here. -Actually, it seems they use the same spelling, found a picture of a goodbye in india.
Babe Ruth 7M (270M, usual warnings apply)
Bruce Lee 32M (1360M, but.. three letters, and means a bunch of stuff, and is a store, and a common surname somewhere in the world, and.. yeah.)
Larry Bird 1M (Not even touching that surname)
Tiger Woods: 26M (Yeah, no.)
John Cena: 22M (Also no.)
Yao Ming 5M (Same)
Francesco Totti 6M (21)
Zinedine Zidane 9M (29)
Michael Schumacher 18M(50)
James Rodriguez 18M



So, it's quite obvious: Cristiano Ronaldo >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Beckham >> Michael Jordan >>>>>> Anyone else.
And for who's counting, Ali > Tyson, but barely.

Corollary: No one can measure up to football. Especially not baseball \ basketball \ hockey \ north-america-only-stuff.

For comparison about Ronaldo's incredible slaying of the thing: Barack Obama has 206M (565), George Bush 10M, Michael Jackson 100M, most top-tier actors are around 40-60M, most top-tiers actresses\models around 80, Kim Kardashian 161M, Jesus just 560M, short of other words like "Jordan" or "Bird", Justin Bieber 220m, and the award goes to "John F. Kennedy",

Buzz Lightyear outdoes Buzz Aldrin 10:1, for 7m at 0.7m.

Also, unquoted search is fun. Contrary to all i believed about the internet, "Porn" gets 433M, while more mundane things, like "Bird" or "Dinner", and "Computer" goes all the way to 2500M, "Bank" has 2b, "Money" also has 2500M, along with "Space"
Sex has 1.5b.
Work has nearly 6b.
Health 3.6b.
Time is 12b.
In \ And \ The \ To \ Of \ A \ E \ 1, 2[...]14 25b. To be precise, exactly 25,270,000,000, which is probably google's cap.
Have, 18b.
You has 18b, Me has 6b.
Also to my surprise, 'cat' just has 1.6b.
Dog has 1.2b, God the same.

Art has 6b, Science 2b.
New 18b, Old 4b.
Facebook has 18b, Google 9b.
There's perfect correlation for one > two > three ... > nine, until ten breaks everything, but resumes at 11 > 12 ...
And this is getting worrying, i'll stop here.
I think there's a very good correlation with shorter = better, which reinforces Ronaldo's win.
 
Pagusas

Pagusas

Elden Member
Pele

Messi

Maradona

Who are these people?

My answere would be MIchael Jordan by a country mile. Followed by either Tiger Woods or that one soccer dude, Beckman is it?
 
D

DarkFlow

Banned
Aureon said:
Let's bring google in the discussion: (Numbers for their surname only, with the catch that it may get things they aren't related to. Jordan is a state, Bolt is a film, Ronaldo is just Ronaldo.)
Skewed because i'm googling english letters and not chinese\indian\japanese\whatever.
QUOTED search.
Michael Jordan: 42M hits (905)
Diego Maradona: 10M hits (37)
Lionel Messi: 67M hits (210)
David Beckham: 58M (120)
Ronaldo: 153M hits (262)
Usain Bolt: 15M hits (173, but there's NOTHING about him in the first page, duh.)
Andre the giant: 16M
Mike Tyson: 21M (82M)
Muhammad Ali: 27M (870M, but "ali" means "Wings" in italian, and being a three-letter word, probably a bunch of other stuff. Also a film, and like 2 results about him in first page)
Wayne Gretzky: 1M (6M)
Sachin Tendulkar 15M (17M), may need indian spelling here. -Actually, it seems they use the same spelling, found a picture of a goodbye in india.
Babe Ruth 7M (270M, usual warnings apply)
Bruce Lee 32M (1360M, but.. three letters, and means a bunch of stuff, and is a store, and a common surname somewhere in the world, and.. yeah.)
Larry Bird 1M (Not even touching that surname)
Tiger Woods: 26M (Yeah, no.)
John Cena: 22M (Also no.)
Yao Ming 5M (Same)
Francesco Totti 6M (21)
Zinedine Zidane 9M (29)
Michael Schumacher 18M(50)
James Rodriguez 18M



So, it's quite obvious: Cristiano Ronaldo >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Beckham >> Michael Jordan >>>>>> Anyone else.
And for who's counting, Ali > Tyson, but barely.

Corollary: No one can measure up to football. Especially not baseball \ basketball \ hockey \ north-america-only-stuff.

For comparison about Ronaldo's incredible slaying of the thing: Barack Obama has 206M (565), George Bush 10M, Michael Jackson 100M, most top-tier actors are around 40-60M, most top-tiers actresses\models around 80, Kim Kardashian 161M, Jesus just 560M, short of other words like "Jordan" or "Bird", Justin Bieber 220m, and the award goes to "John F. Kennedy",

Buzz Lightyear outdoes Buzz Aldrin 10:1, for 7m at 0.7m.

Also, unquoted search is fun. Contrary to all i believed about the internet, "Porn" gets 433M, while more mundane things, like "Bird" or "Dinner", and "Computer" goes all the way to 2500M, "Bank" has 2b, "Money" also has 2500M, along with "Space"
Sex has 1.5b.
Work has nearly 6b.
Health 3.6b.
Time is 12b.
In \ And \ The \ To \ Of \ A \ E \ 1, 2[...]14 25b. To be precise, exactly 25,270,000,000, which is probably google's cap.
Have, 18b.
You has 18b, Me has 6b.
Also to my surprise, 'cat' just has 1.6b.
Dog has 1.2b, God the same.

Art has 6b, Science 2b.
New 18b, Old 4b.
Facebook has 18b, Google 9b.
There's perfect correlation for one > two > three ... > nine, until ten breaks everything, but resumes at 11 > 12 ...
And this is getting worrying, i'll stop here.
I think there's a very good correlation with shorter = better, which reinforces Ronaldo's win.
Click to expand...

That doesn't really prove anything since Ronaldo is a currently playing athlete, of course he's going to have a ton of hits from game recaps alone. You also forgot Lebron James with his 60 million hits. If I just type "lebron" i get 105 million.
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Yeah google search is not a good way to measure popularity. Really ignores a lot of developing nations who might not have the internet infrastructure or athletes who are retired.
 
X

xbhaskarx

Member
I don't know how anyone can say Mohammed Ali or Pele are more well known globally right now than Ronaldo or Messi. Ali retired from boxing in 1979 and Pele retired from soccer in 1977. Since then 36-38 years worth of people who were old enough to know who they were have died. The estimated global population from 1979 is 4.37 billion, the estimated global population in 2015 is 7.25 billion. That's almost 3 billion more people who are alive now than were alive back then, meaning far more than 3 billion have been born since the late-70s who would only know them as old retired dudes.
 
A

Aureon

Please do not let me serve on a jury. I am actually a crazy person.
DarkFlow said:
That doesn't really prove anything since Ronaldo is a currently playing athlete, of course he's going to have a ton of hits from game recaps alone. You also forgot Lebron James with his 60 million hits. If I just type "lebron" i get 105 million.
Click to expand...

No need to quote the whole page. Also, half the list is currently playing, and most don't break the 20m.
I'm sure i forgot a few, bound to be.

Antiwhippy said:
Yeah google search is not a good way to measure popularity. Really ignores a lot of developing nations who might not have the internet infrastructure or athletes who are retired.
Click to expand...

Oh, obviously. There's a huge list of catches to that. But it's some data, which is fun to have when throwing random guesses.
 
P

Paertan

Member
Pele probably. Then Maradona. Beckham is probably reaching their heights as well.

EDIT: Ah Ronaldo of course xD I don't think he is most known though
 
V

veryslowhand

Banned
Please don't make non soccer fans belive Maradona is the best ever.

Alfredo Diestefano>pele>Raúl González>many others>maradona


And is Jordan by far.
 
M

masud

Banned
Sorry Euros it's Jordan by far. Basketball has an advantage over other team sports because of the amount of close ups you get in a tv broadcast and because of the impact a single player can have. So even though soccer is the most popular sport worldwide (I still think UKers underestimate the popularity of basketball around the world) basketball players can compete when it comes to celebrity.

And lol @ comparing Google hits of active players to a guy that's been retired for a decade.
 
J

JABEE

Member
Vulcano's assistant said:
Babe Ruth was almost Charlie Chaplin huge.
Click to expand...

Yep.

I guess it depends on your age. Some people don't even know who Chaplin is now. If you asked at the time they were active. It might be different.

I said Jackie Robinson, because he broke the color barrier in baseball and was a figure in the civil rights movement.
 
JediLink

JediLink

Member
First thing that popped into my mind was Roger Federer, so make of that what you will. Michael Jordan is a good answer.
 
A

Acorn

Member
Aureon said:
Let's bring google in the discussion: (Numbers for their surname only, with the catch that it may get things they aren't related to. Jordan is a state, Bolt is a film, Ronaldo is just Ronaldo.)
Skewed because i'm googling english letters and not chineseindianjapanesewhatever.
QUOTED search.
Michael Jordan: 42M hits (905)
Diego Maradona: 10M hits (37)
Lionel Messi: 67M hits (210)
David Beckham: 58M (120)
Ronaldo: 153M hits (262)
Usain Bolt: 15M hits (173, but there's NOTHING about him in the first page, duh.)
Andre the giant: 16M
Mike Tyson: 21M (82M)
Muhammad Ali: 27M (870M, but "ali" means "Wings" in italian, and being a three-letter word, probably a bunch of other stuff. Also a film, and like 2 results about him in first page)
Wayne Gretzky: 1M (6M)
Sachin Tendulkar 15M (17M), may need indian spelling here. -Actually, it seems they use the same spelling, found a picture of a goodbye in india.
Babe Ruth 7M (270M, usual warnings apply)
Bruce Lee 32M (1360M, but.. three letters, and means a bunch of stuff, and is a store, and a common surname somewhere in the world, and.. yeah.)
Larry Bird 1M (Not even touching that surname)
Tiger Woods: 26M (Yeah, no.)
John Cena: 22M (Also no.)
Yao Ming 5M (Same)
Francesco Totti 6M (21)
Zinedine Zidane 9M (29)
Michael Schumacher 18M(50)
James Rodriguez 18M



So, it's quite obvious: Cristiano Ronaldo >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Beckham >> Michael Jordan >>>>>> Anyone else.
And for who's counting, Ali > Tyson, but barely.

Corollary: No one can measure up to football. Especially not baseball basketball hockey north-america-only-stuff.

For comparison about Ronaldo's incredible slaying of the thing: Barack Obama has 206M (565), George Bush 10M, Michael Jackson 100M, most top-tier actors are around 40-60M, most top-tiers actressesmodels around 80, Kim Kardashian 161M, Jesus just 560M, short of other words like "Jordan" or "Bird", Justin Bieber 220m, and the award goes to "John F. Kennedy",

Buzz Lightyear outdoes Buzz Aldrin 10:1, for 7m at 0.7m.

Also, unquoted search is fun. Contrary to all i believed about the internet, "Porn" gets 433M, while more mundane things, like "Bird" or "Dinner", and "Computer" goes all the way to 2500M, "Bank" has 2b, "Money" also has 2500M, along with "Space"
Sex has 1.5b.
Work has nearly 6b.
Health 3.6b.
Time is 12b.
In And The To Of A E 1, 2[...]14 25b. To be precise, exactly 25,270,000,000, which is probably google's cap.
Have, 18b.
You has 18b, Me has 6b.
Also to my surprise, 'cat' just has 1.6b.
Dog has 1.2b, God the same.

Art has 6b, Science 2b.
New 18b, Old 4b.
Facebook has 18b, Google 9b.
There's perfect correlation for one > two > three ... > nine, until ten breaks everything, but resumes at 11 > 12 ...
And this is getting worrying, i'll stop here.
I think there's a very good correlation with shorter = better, which reinforces Ronaldo's win.
Click to expand...
Just searching Ronaldo doesn't work.

Brazil's Ronaldo was widely regarded as the best striker in the world in the 90s early 2000s and was Nike's pin up boy.
 
M

masud

Banned
Zoned said:
Spain is a tiny part of this world. Don't forget about Asia or other EU nations where barely anyone plays or even knows about Basketball.

Soccer is a world sport.
Click to expand...

Basketball is pretty popular in most of Europe outside of the UK and it's probably even more popular in Asia (2nd most popular sport in China after ping pong most popular sport in the Philippines)
 
P

Piggus

Member
Night Hunter said:
ITT: Americans who don't understand that nobody outside watches their sports

People outside of the US know Michael Jordan because of Space Jam. If they know him at all
Yes, I am exaggerating.
Click to expand...

At least we care about more than one sport. :/

If you don't know who Michael Jordan is then you've basically had zero exposure to American media/culture. That's like not knowing who Michael Jackson is.

Zoned said:
Spain is a tiny part of this world. Don't forget about Asia or other EU nations where barely anyone plays or even knows about Basketball.

Soccer is a world sport.
Click to expand...

lmao. And you probably think the US is the only place where Baseball is popular too.
 
S

Soulscribe

Member
1) Michael Jordan
2) Muhammad Ali
3) Hulk Hogan
4) Tiger Woods
5) David Beckham
6) Babe Ruth
7) Shaquille O'Neil
8) Mike Tyson

There ya go
 
C

C4Lukins

Junior Member
Jordan, Ali, Gretzky, Tyson, Woods, Pele.

As far as moden dudes. Sampras, Beckham, Brady, Lebron, maybe. But then you have Federer, hell if I know who foreign countries are aware of.


But I would go with Jordan in the end.
 
P

panty

Member
Maradona? Haha, god no. Maybe the most overrated/hyped.

I'd say Michael Jordan, Pele or Ali.

E: Oh it's Cristiano Ronaldo.
 
B

Brakke

Banned
Y'all triflin' with this Woods nonsense. Not even the tops for golf.

ghf_logo.jpg


This motherfucker got a drink named after him and everything.
 
J

Jonm1010

Banned
I'd say Michael Jordan. The name, the brand, the aura. I think it all comes together and it why he becomes someone that is known everywhere, despite playing for a sport that isn't the dominant sport in any major country.

Ali probably ranks up there as well.

Pele too.
 
G

gutter_trash

Banned
Michael Jordan, he transcends sports. Even people who didn't watch NBA know who he is and know that impact he had on propelling basketball.

nobody in the NFL, NHL or MLB has the world recognition around the globe like Mike.

---

a gaffer posted an NFL dude that I never heard of.... see that guy can't be the most famous of all time if I don't know who is. But Mike, everybody knows Michael Jordan
 
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