Who is the biggest global icon?

[commadoor 64]

With over 3.5 billion fans worldwide, football ("soccer") is the most popular sport on the planet. It always ranks at the top of the majority of the credible lists published.

Usually, popularity is measured based on the "number of viewers/fans". According to a website called mostpopularsports.net, here are the top 3:
Football (which is equivalent to American soccer) is the most popular overall

Tennis is the most popular "individual" sport (no team required)

Golf is the most popular "solo" sport (can be played alone).




Additional opinions from WikiAnswers sports fans:

"Most popular" could mean "most watched," "most played," or "most revenue-generating." Based on the variable definition of "most popular" the following observations apply:
The most played sport, not just watched, in the world is also football (American Soccer).
Based on the number and size of stadiums around the world, the number of people who wear football (American Soccer) merchandise, the number of people who are aware of football, and the number of leagues/tournaments worldwide (The World Cup, UEFA Champions League, The South American Cup, The American Cup, The Asian Cup, 70 English league teams, 40 Italian league teams, 40 Spanish league teams) football ranks at the top of the list regardless of the definition of "most popular."
Rugby is very popular in many former English colonies (with the notable exception of the US) and has a large following. However, participation rates fall below that of football.

Manchester United is the most popular sports team and the biggest sport franchise on the planet. It has over 450 million fans all around the world. Its estimated value is $1.9 billion in value, which well exceeds that of the Dallas Cowboys and Real Madrid.




Most Frequently Cited Ranked Lists
1) Football: 3.3-3.5 billion fans (Europe, Africa, Asia, Americas, etc.)
2) Cricket: 2-3 billion fans (India, UK, Pakistan, Asia, Australia, etc.)
3) Field hockey: 2-2.2 billion fans (Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia)
4) Tennis: Around 1 billion fans (Europe, Americas, Asia)
5) Volleyball: Around 900 million fans (Asia, Europe, Americas, Australia)
6) Table tennis: Around 900 million fans (Asia, Europe, Africa, Americas)
7) Baseball: Around 500 million fans (US, Japan, Cuba, Dominican Republic)
8) Golf: Around 400 million fans (US, Canada, Europe)
9) Gridiron (American football): 390-410 million fans (US mainly)
10) Basketball: Not more than 400 million fans (US, Canada mainly)



Another list from sportingo.com/answers.com/Wikipedia
1. Soccer (association football, also known as futbol in various Spanish-speaking countries)
2. Cricket
3. Rugby
4. Field Hockey
T5: Baseball
T5: Basketball

Christ folks, use google for god's sake.

In every credible top 10 list football/soccer is number one by usually a wide margin.
An estimated 3.5 billion fans worldwide as opposed to 400 million basketball fans.

Here's facebook's take...

The world’s five most popular things / people / phenomena on Facebook at the time of writing are Texas Hold’em poker (almost 22m fans), followed by Michael Jackson, Facebook itself, Lady GaGa and the TV show Family Guy.
Cristiano Ronaldo, at No16 in the overall rankings of the most popular things in the world, is only slightly less popular than South Park, and slightly more popular than music.
Messi is slightly less popular than Jackie Chan, and slightly more popular than basketball.
Federer is slightly less popular than the Turkish football team Galatasaray, and slightly more popular than CSI.
Bryant is slightly less popular than the iPod, and slightly more popular than the Jonas Brothers.
Michael Jordan is slightly less popular than dancing, and slightly more popular than Starburst (formerly Opal Fruits).
Beckham is slightly less popular than Starburst, and slightly more popular than the character Alan from the movie The Hangover.
Nadal is slightly less popular than Johnny Depp, and slightly more popular than MTV.
Phelps is slightly less popular than Radiohead, and slightly more popular than Enrique Iglesias.

[Realdeal_33]

^^

Thank you, more proof. Kobe isn't more known than Paul George, a Beast on one of the beastest teams in the NBA. And Kobesupposed to be basketball's most overrated player. Think about that for a second.

The 1st related Paul George video on youtube has almost 5.2 million views and was uploaded 2 weeks ago. Not that it is any surprise tho. George > Kobe

Who's Paul George?

https://twitter.com/King24George

You personally need to apologize to him.

Lol get off his nuts I was trolling you.

[inquisitive]

Why don't you guys do your own research...go to Google versions of each country around the world and also check out baidu.com(China) as well as Google China(www.google.com.hk)?

[sonicFLAME6]

http://www.epltalk.com/2010-world-cup-final-the-most-watched-soccer-game-in-u-s-history-22078

The 2010 World Cup Final set a new record for the most watched soccer game in U.S. history Sunday when 24.3 million people watched the Spain versus Netherlands game on ABC and Univision, according to Nielsen.

More perspective for the people who think futbol is not as popular in the states. A sport that features Messi, Ronaldo, a prime Spain team with great players all over and many more, even Kaka a Brazilian legend has 12million+ twitter followers and people in this thread still believe Messi/Ronaldo are not known in North America

[LLcoleJ]

http://www.epltalk.com/2010-world-cup-final-the-most-watched-soccer-game-in-u-s-history-22078

The 2010 World Cup Final set a new record for the most watched soccer game in U.S. history Sunday when 24.3 million people watched the Spain versus Netherlands game on ABC and Univision, according to Nielsen.

More perspective for the people who think futbol is not as popular in the states. A sport that features Messi, Ronaldo, a prime Spain team with great players all over and many more, even Kaka a Brazilian legend has 12million+ twitter followers and people in this thread still believe Messi/Ronaldo are not known in North America

How does this prove in anyway that Messi is a household name in the US?

[Indy2thaWindy]

What has anybody shown that proves Tiger Woods or Kobe Bryant are household names to the rest of the world? What he put shows that there is at least an interest in the US.

[LLcoleJ]

What has anybody shown that proves Tiger Woods or Kobe Bryant are household names to the rest of the world? What he put shows that there is at least an interest in the US.

If you read the thread, you would know that I don't believe Kobe Bryant should be in consideration. Please read up on that.

And the only american athlete that MIGHT have a chance at global recognition would be Tiger Woods because he competes all over the world and is, well, infamous in his own right.

But my guess is you didn't actually read my position.


If you want an example for Tiger.

http://www.golf.com/photos/tiger-woods- ... tatement-0

Here are images of his confessions seen around the world. On top of him playing golf in the Americas, Europe, Asia,Middle East, Australia...

[sonicFLAME6]

What I'm trying to prove is that soccer as a whole is more popular in the states than people on a basketball forum think it is. It is also more popular worldwide, which means it's stars are more popular worldwide, or like this tread asks, soccer stars are bigger global icons.
And if you asked me I would say David Beckham is a bigger global icon than any of the guys listed and comes from the world of soccer based on pro athletes that are still active.
I remember even Max Kellerman talking about the subject on ESPN LA radio not to long ago and if I remember correctly he had D.Becks over Kobe in biggest names in pro sports. Soccer and it's stars will always be more popular and "bigger global icons" there's not way around it and it's not even debatable.

[EArl]

Lol at this dude trying to tell me that people in LA don't know who Kobe is. See, this is why I like message boards

You're being an idiot. Please stop.

Messi is more known AROUND THE WORLD than Kobe. It's a fact. If you don't like it; tough. Water is wet, the sky is blue and Messi is more of a global icon than Kobe. <

To put things in perspective - the world`s population is around 7,039,000,000 while America`s population is around 314,347,000. So, 95% of the world`s people live outside of the USA. Soccer is by a huge margin the most popular sport on earth. Can you see how Messi and Ronaldo could easily be 1 and 2 on a true international list?

No he isn't. I posted undeniable proof. Here is some more. This is the first related video that pops up when you youtube Messi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3JrUU617gQ.
It has 70,000 views.
This is the first video that pops up when you youtube Kobe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsaL_BDAeqA
It has over 1,200,000 views

If you live in America, ask your co-workers who Messi is. Most will ask who is she, or I've never heard of her. I know this is the Internet and hipsters want to act "cool and in the know" so you all are voting Messi. But stop for a minute and look around. Soccer is never on TV for a reason. Few people watch it.

Using youtube as proof is terrible. The majority of people in some countries don't have computers or even internet for that matter.

[LLcoleJ]

What I'm trying to prove is that soccer as a whole is more popular in the states than people on a basketball forum think it is. It is also more popular worldwide, which means it's stars are more popular worldwide, or like this tread asks, soccer stars are bigger global icons.
And if you asked me I would say David Beckham is a bigger global icon than any of the guys listed and comes from the world of soccer based on pro athletes that are still active.
I remember even Max Kellerman talking about the subject on ESPN LA radio not to long ago and if I remember correctly he had D.Becks over Kobe in biggest names in pro sports. Soccer and it's stars will always be more popular and "bigger global icons" there's not way around it and it's not even debatable.

Right and sadly ( atleast from what I understand about Beckham) is that he is more of a global icon than players that are better than him.

I agree Beckham is huge worldwide. He would be a good pick.

Also, I didn't say Soccer/futbol doest exists in the states. It's simply not as popular as many other sports here. I thought that is pretty clear. And Lionel Messi is not a household name. Sadly, again a guy like Tim Tebow is.

Ronaldo has only piqued some interest here from the ladies.

[EArl]

What I'm trying to prove is that soccer as a whole is more popular in the states than people on a basketball forum think it is. It is also more popular worldwide, which means it's stars are more popular worldwide, or like this tread asks, soccer stars are bigger global icons.
And if you asked me I would say David Beckham is a bigger global icon than any of the guys listed and comes from the world of soccer based on pro athletes that are still active.
I remember even Max Kellerman talking about the subject on ESPN LA radio not to long ago and if I remember correctly he had D.Becks over Kobe in biggest names in pro sports. Soccer and it's stars will always be more popular and "bigger global icons" there's not way around it and it's not even debatable.

Right and sadly ( atleast from what I understand about Beckham) is that he is more of a global icon than players that are better than him.

I agree Beckham is huge worldwide. He would be a good pick.

Also, I didn't say Soccer/futbol doest exists in the states. It's simply not as popular as many other sports here. I thought that is pretty clear. And Lionel Messi is not a household name. Sadly, again a guy like Tim Tebow is.

Ronaldo has only piqued some interest here from the ladies.

Pretty much every player that plays for spain has piqued interest from the ladies

[dockingsched]

What I'm trying to prove is that soccer as a whole is more popular in the states than people on a basketball forum think it is.

to add to this point;

2010's world cup matchup between mexico and argentina (messi) drew over 15 million viewers (univision + abc)

The deciding game 5 of the nba finals this yr drew a mere 3 mil more, 18 mil.

[MaliBrah]

What I'm trying to prove is that soccer as a whole is more popular in the states than people on a basketball forum think it is. It is also more popular worldwide, which means it's stars are more popular worldwide, or like this tread asks, soccer stars are bigger global icons.
And if you asked me I would say David Beckham is a bigger global icon than any of the guys listed and comes from the world of soccer based on pro athletes that are still active.
I remember even Max Kellerman talking about the subject on ESPN LA radio not to long ago and if I remember correctly he had D.Becks over Kobe in biggest names in pro sports. Soccer and it's stars will always be more popular and "bigger global icons" there's not way around it and it's not even debatable.

Right and sadly ( atleast from what I understand about Beckham) is that he is more of a global icon than players that are better than him.

I agree Beckham is huge worldwide. He would be a good pick.

Also, I didn't say Soccer/futbol doest exists in the states. It's simply not as popular as many other sports here. I thought that is pretty clear. And Lionel Messi is not a household name. Sadly, again a guy like Tim Tebow is.

Ronaldo has only piqued some interest here from the ladies.

Pretty much every player that plays for spain has piqued interest from the ladies

What I find funny here is that the spanish national team starts a guy named pique ... LOL

[twomangame]

The only advantage I see for Kobe here is:

You ask someone who doesn't really give a hoot/ almost zero following about basketball:
"Do you know any good basketball player currently?" - He/ She will most likely say Kobe Bryant.

Apply the same scenario but strictly about football, and he/she will probably give different names. (Messi, Rooney, Ronaldo, Beckham, etc.)

Still in terms of overall popularity worldwide, Messi takes the cake simply because of the sheer number of football fans/viewers around the world.

[MartyConlonJr]

Did anyone come into this thread asking 'Who is Tiger Woods?'

Do you really think if we were on a European forum this question would come up and people wouldn't know who Tiger Woods is?

He is in the sports section, he is on the front page of the newspapers, he is in the tabloid magazines that you read at the hairdressers, at the doctors office. When he comes to play a tournament in your major city, the billboards are plastered with his face.

And I'm Australian, not American. When we had whatever golf tour was in Melbourne last year (and I know nothing about Golf, never watched it in my life), he got paid a lucrative amount just to play there to attract tv, and people that never watched golf tuned in just to 'see how Tiger went'.

You cannot avoid Tiger Woods in your regular day to day. Because I rarely read the sports section of the paper (cause I get all my NBA at Realgm / yahoo etc), I am not subjected to Messi. I've never seen him in any casual area of media.

[swag2011]

Global icon would be between Tiger Woods or a soccer player. I live in the US, and i really don't care about soccer at all, so i don't know who Messi is. Only reason i've heard of him is because a few weeks ago during the Olympics, Kobe kept saying something about how Messi is the greatest soccer player ever. I wasn't bothered to look him up though, but yea. In terms of someone who doesn't care about soccer like myself, I would say David Beckham, and Ronaldo are the two i've heard of. If Beckham was a choice, i'd easily pick him, he's also got the fact that he's married to a member of the best selling female group of all time to help his popularity as well.

Tiger Woods is self explanatory. He appealed to all races everywhere. He was like a marketing dream. Too bad he messed it up in 09 though.

I love Kobe, am a huge fan (probably a stan) but he's not the biggest global icon. I don't think he's the biggest sports icon in the U.S lol. Now if we were talking about strictly active NBA basketball players, Kobe takes it, no debate. He got the most cheers out of any Olympian in 08, and had more facebook fans than any Olympian this past year. Don't forget the guy from Tunisia wanted his autograph. There's a reason he has the number 1 selling jersey internationally.

Now if we're talking basketball in a whole, active or retired, it's MJ and it really isn't close, nor will it ever be close. I strongly believe that's part of the reason why MJ is considered the GOAT, b/c of how he helped expand the global popularity of the NBA. Jordan Brand is self explanatory. He's the ONLY NBA player people in other countries will have heard of, if they aren't big on basketball.

[twomangame]

Now if we're talking basketball in a whole, active or retired, it's MJ and it really isn't close, nor will it ever be close. I strongly believe that's part of the reason why MJ is considered the GOAT, b/c of how he helped expand the global popularity of the NBA. Jordan Brand is self explanatory. He's the ONLY NBA player people in other countries will have heard of, if they aren't big on basketball.

QFT.

[Cleveland Cavs]

What has anybody shown that proves Tiger Woods or Kobe Bryant are household names to the rest of the world? What he put shows that there is at least an interest in the US.

If you read the thread, you would know that I don't believe Kobe Bryant should be in consideration. Please read up on that.

And the only american athlete that MIGHT have a chance at global recognition would be Tiger Woods because he competes all over the world and is, well, infamous in his own right.

But my guess is you didn't actually read my position.


If you want an example for Tiger.

http://www.golf.com/photos/tiger-woods- ... tatement-0

Here are images of his confessions seen around the world. On top of him playing golf in the Americas, Europe, Asia,Middle East, Australia...

I think more people know Messi then Tiger

[mymysql]

Messi and Ronoldo were the only two names on the list I didn't recognize and yet they won half the poll. I guess a lot of people outside North America like some lame kick ball sport.

[Cleveland Cavs]

Messi and Ronoldo were the only two names on the list I didn't recognize and yet they won half the poll. I guess a lot of people outside North America like some lame kick ball sport.

''I guess a lot of people outside North America like some lame kick ball sport''

So your basically telling me you didnt know football was the biggest sport in the world?